


Inescapable

by raelee514



Series: Inevitable Verse [2]
Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Friends With Benefits, M/M, Prequel, idiots not realizing they're falling in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-14
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-05-12 01:02:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 45,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19218445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raelee514/pseuds/raelee514
Summary: Smutty prequel to my fanfic Inevitable.  Aaron and Robert are two idiots who think they have a friends with benefits situation going on but they do not at all.





	1. The Meet Cute

**Author's Note:**

> Hey. Decided I wanted to write them being all smutty and falling in love without realizing as a prequel to Inevitable. Sorry, this first chapter doesn't get right to the smut but that is coming VERY soon.

July

The Meet Cute 

Aaron cracked his neck and shifted the six-pack of beer he had in his left hand to his right hand and stared at the elevator doors, willing them to open — it was one of the few downsides to him moving in with Adam. The building was nice enough, but it was old, and the elevator was notoriously slow. It was probably a good thing that there were only three floors. "Come on…" he muttered. He'd had a long day with not one but five shitty customers who didn't seem to get their cars could be magically fixed. He was still covered with a film of engine grease and sweat from the July heat. All he wanted to do was get the beer in the fridge, get in the shower and then do nothing but sit in front of the telly, drink and eat whatever takeaway Adam was bringing home with him.

He heard steps behind him and turned, thinking Adam may have already gotten back from the takeaway place, but it wasn't Adam at all. His mouth went instantly dry as the man continued to stride right toward him. He was taller than Aaron, short and stylish blonde hair and a jawline that could kill. Aaron ducked his head down to look at the beer, so he wouldn't stare at the guy not wanting to cause any sort of scene. But he was bloody gorgeous, and he stopped in front of the elevator and huffed out in annoyance. 

"It should…" Aaron started to say, and the doors opened. 

"Guess so," the man laughed, and the two of them stopped onto it. Aaron couldn't help himself glancing at his profile. It was nearly perfect, he thought and shook his head. It'd been far too long since he went out on the pull, he should rectify that soon, he thought. He was going mad, practically drooling over this guy. He'd never seen before, though he'd only been living in the building for a few weeks. 

They both went to push number three at the same time. The man getting there a second before Aaron, who was thankful he managed to pull his hand back soon enough. As they stepped back away from the buttons, Aaron caught the guy looking at him. Their eyes met and something pulsed through Aaron and time seemed slower somehow — like everything was slow motion despite reality not working like that all. Aaron forced himself to glance away and felt the elevator lurch. 

"You moved in across the hall, with whathisface?" the man asked. 

"Adam Barton, yeah…" Aaron nodded. 

"Huh, yeah okay…" he trailed off. "Liking it?"

"Elevator's slow," Aaron said as it stopped for no reason on the second floor. "And dumb…"

"It does that. You'll get used it. It's a pain when you're in a rush to get home, though, I'm gasping… worked through lunch, barely had any breaks."

"Yeah, know the feeling…" Aaron said though he was pretty sure he didn't. This guy was in a suit, and it looked tailored to fit him — and it was molded to him, and Aaron tried to stop himself from looking at his arse. He held a briefcase, he definitely had a better job than Aaron. 

"I'm Robert, by the way, Robert Sugden," he said and offered his hand. 

Aaron felt instantly insecure about his grease filled fingernails and hoped his hesitation wasn't obvious as he forced himself to take his hand. Robert's was warm, and he gripped Aaron's hand tightly, and that pulse happened again, and Aaron looked up and met Robert's eyes…. They didn't look real, they looked like sea-blue water he'd only seen on television. 

Wait… Sugden? 

"And you are?" 

"Sugden?" Aaron said, echoing his mind. 

"That'd be weird," Robert chuckled. 

"No, I mean it is weird, I mean…" Aaron really hated it when he turned into Paddy. "I'm Aaron Dingle, are you from Emmerdale?"

Robert stepped back a step and let go of Aaron's hand, making his palm feel suddenly cold. He grimaced because he'd seen something shudder in Robert's eyes when he brought up Emmerdale. He could take it back, not admit he was Dingle.

"You're a Dingle?" Robert said after a beat and shook his head. 

"Yeah…" Aaron said. 

"Well, guess not much chance of making a good impression… they don't like me much, the Dingles."

"Don't they?"

"Aren't close to them then?"

"No, I am… yeah, just not much for gossip."

"Oh… well, then, try to not ask about it," Robert scratched the back of his neck. 

The doors opened again on their floor. They headed toward their doors. Aaron put the beer on the floor and started looking for his key. But he felt eyes on him, but heard nothing from behind him. And he ended up turning and caught Robert staring at him. It made him blush, and it made him curious because there was no mistaking it, it was a full on stare. What was he looking at? 

"Uh…" Robert said and then seemed to roll his eyes at himself. "It was nice to meet you, Aaron."

"Yeah?" 

"Don't sound so shocked."

Aaron cursed himself. "I mean, yeah, you too," he tried to save it. 

"Right…well, see ya around."

Aaron nodded. "Could come over in a few…" he heard himself offer. 

"What?"

"Adam and I, we're just getting takeaway and having…" he waved the beer as he picked it back up. "Just you know, give me a bit to wash up."

Robert's mouth parted a bit, and he looked from the beer to Aaron to the door behind him. "Yeah... Uh, I've got a lot of paperwork to do…" he waved his briefcase. "But, um, raincheck?"

"Yeah, yeah…" Aaron nodded believing he was being blown off — not that it mattered, he didn't know Robert, and he was probably being weird, inviting him right over. It wasn't even him, he wasn't known for his social skills, he was probably doing it all wrong.

"Great," Robert said with a sincerity that shocked and confused Aaron. 

He nodded and then watched Robert unlock his door and disappear. He licked his lips and shook his head at himself. Tried to tell himself the guy wasn't that fit and got himself inside, expecting to forget about their interaction. 

~~~

Robert couldn't concentrate. He was trying to get through all the details he needed to know like the back of his hand for his meeting in the meeting in and all he couldn't think about was the guy across the hall. He scrubbed his hands over his face and shook his head. Aaron Dingle. Dingle, he laughed at the absurdity of it all. He couldn't help be curious about how the guy fit into the Dingle clan. He certainly didn't like any Dingle he'd ever seen before — he was bloody beautiful, probably the fittest bloke he'd seen in a long time. At least he couldn't remember it and it'd only been about a month since Chrissie found him in bed with her — their — personal trainer Scott. He could barely remember what he looked like, but in the short ride up the elevator, Robert felt like Aaron Dingle's eyes been scorched into his brain. 

He'd never seen blue like that. Ever. 

He shook his head and leaned back on his couch. He'd just needed to get some, he thought, but it wouldn't be with Aaron — would it? He had gotten a vibe or two. He could've sworn he'd felt eyes on his arse and he did catch him staring once or twice. But he had doubts they guy looked away quickly, except the time he caught Robert just staring at him. Aaron was getting out his keys, and Robert just couldn't stop himself from taking a long and nice look… 

Aaron caught up, and they'd just stared at each other. 

Maybe here was shot? Could he be gay or bisexual… Robert felt his brain stutter on bisexual. He'd only uttered that once aloud to a perfect stranger...it'd gone well enough but once wasn't enough. Sure he wasn't celibate at all and slept with his share of men. But saying it out loud still felt more real than he was ready to deal with. By a lot…

He wondered what Dingle was again and if he was right about having those blue-blue eyes check him out. Before he really decided he was outside his door and knocking on Dingle's. It was when Aaron opened the door that he realized what he was doing, but it was too late to back out now. "Changed me mind… haven't gone through all those beers have ya?"

"No… Adam got a call from his sister, she's having some sort of crisis. They'll be on the phone chattering now for ages…"

"Huh?" Robert nodded because he could hear Adam on the phone, his voice carrying loudly, and he cringed a bit. Sometimes he could hear the guys laughter through the walls, and it was dead annoying. "Come over then…bring the beer?"

Aaron stared at him for a bit and then shrugged. "Give me a few."

"Sure, I'll leave the door open…" Robert turned and walked back into his own apartment and left the door, ajar behind him. He quickly rushed over to his couch and picked up his work papers, shut his laptop, and made the coffee table more presentable. 

He heard his door creak and scraped his hands against his thighs as he stood up straighter. Aaron stood just inside, holding the pack of beer, four ca n's dangling. "You missed out one round," he said. 

"No bother," Robert said, and he motioned to the couch. "Uh, I could put on Top Gear, or we could watch a movie…" he rolled his eyes at himself and told himself this wasn't a date. 

"Or…"

"Or?"

"Are you gay?" Aaron said quickly and then ducked his head.

"No," Robert said with an automatic defensiveness that was proving to be a hard habit to break. 

"Shit…" Aaron stumbled as he tried to turn around. "Then let's just forget this, yeah…"

Fuck, Robert couldn't let him go and he was at his door in no time flat and he yanked Aaron around, hand on his hip and another on his face, and groaned at the feeling of stubble on his palm and how dark Aaron's eyes looked as they looked up shining with confusion, embarrassment and something else. "I'm not straight," Robert muttered before he just kissed him to make it perfectly clear.


	2. The First Time

The First Time

Aaron felt himself crash against the flat’s door, shutting it with a bang, but he barely heard it. His heart was in his throat, and Robert’s tongue was in his mouth. And it all happened so fast, his brain was trying to catch up but his body was utterly distracted. He grabbed onto Robert where ever he could get his hands, his shoulders, his arms, he whimpered when his mouth was released. But then he was throwing his head back to give better access to his neck. Robert’s mouth licked and kissed against his skin, and he felt his entire body curl into it. His hand started tugging at clothes, suddenly that was on his only thought, he wanted to touch his skin. 

He shoved Robert so he could reach the buttons of the shirt he’s wearing. “Off…” shot out of his mouth but he barely recognized his voice. Robert huffed out a laugh but nodded and stood there, as Aaron tried to quickly undo the buttons. It stopped the rush, and now his brain is catching with things, and he remembered how they got here. He can’t believe himself… His blushed both at the memory and at the freckled chest and stomach he’s undoing, pale skin, fit stomach, and broad chest. He can’t believe he asked Robert if he was gay. It was as if he announced he was hoping for sex.

And despite the answer being no, here they were, and he took a sharp exhale just as the last button fell free and looked up. Into those sea-green eyes that didn’t seem real and there a gorgeous half smile on Robert’s face… it was shy almost, and it felt ridiculous given the situation. 

“Shit...” Robert whispered and his hands engulfed Aaron’s face, he felt lost in the width of them, and he was being kissed again, it almost felt desperate, and he felt something clawing inside of him. He slipped his hands onto Robert’s waist, warm skin against his palms and slid them up, slipped over his chest and to his shoulders and tried to get shirt really off, but Robert wouldn’t give up his mouth. And it wasn’t like he wanted him to and he felt dizzy just from their lips being joined together. From being trapped between Robert and the door. 

It dawned on him he gave up control. Again. This whole thing was out of his control, even if he’d started it. And it flipped his insides because he never gave up control, it usually made his skin itch. It usually made him tense up and have to make sure he was on the top, he determined the speed but all he could right now as throw his head back again and moan as Robert’s mouth started in on his neck again. 

He wondered if he was breathing when he felt hands tug at his hoodie and Robert finding the handle to the zipper. “Too dressed…” Robert muttered, and he unzipped him.

Aaron reached for Robert’s belt. “Could say the same.”

Robert yanked off his hoodie and grabbed the hem of Aaron’s shirt, making Aaron let go of the undone belt and lift his arms up. He felt himself blush again, and Robert raked his eyes over him, the green in them darkening. Aaron’s hands went back to the belt and yanked on it to pull it out, but all it did was pull Robert even closer into him. Robert ducked his head down and started mouth at Aaron’s chest. 

“Fuck..”

Robert dropped to his knees, and Aaron’s stomach dropped with it, and he realized how hard he was the second Robert’s large hand palmed his dick through his jeans. His head thumped against the door, and his hands went into thick blonde hair. “Fuck…” it was the only word he knew. Then he hissed as his jeans and boxers were yanked off of him in one hard motion and then a hand was wrapped around his cock, and he had to slam his own hand behind him, against the door in an attempt to stay standing. Robert stroked him, and Aaron bit his lip, fear of coming a sudden concern. 

“Can I…” Robert’s voice somehow broke through the buzz in his ears, and he looked down to Robert licking his lips and looking up at Aaron through blonde lashes. 

“Uh huh…” Aaron nodded because he couldn’t speak. 

Robert stroked him again, then again, each time adding pressure to his grip, Then a third time, his thumb stroking over the head of Aaron’s cock, and he felt the slick slide of it, and he was trapped between a hard ache and pure pleasure. He couldn’t take his eyes off of Robert’s mouth because he kept licking his lips, and all Aaron wanted at that moment was them around him. 

“Hurry will ya…” he finally snapped. 

“Yeah, you want it?” Robert asked him mouth, turning up into a smug smirk. 

Aaron growled.

“Shit…” Robert licked his lips again, and they swallowed Aaron. His tongue flicked against his slit and Aaron yanked at Robert’s hair in satisfaction. Robert let out a moan like Aaron tasted amazing and he felt his whole body flush. Then he bucked as Robert started to move up and down, swirling his tongue and applying an almost perfect amount of suction. 

“Fuck, fuck…harder…” Aaron couldn’t recognize his voice, he sounded feral almost and yanked harder on Robert’s hair. 

Robert groaned at the sensation and followed Aaron’s instructions, and a hand reached around and groping Aaron’s butt, willing him to put his hips into it. Aaron couldn’t stop it then and thrust into Robert’s mouth, causing them both to moan. 

“I…” Aaron banged his head on the door again and felt like he was about to shed his skin in the best way possible. “I’m gonna…”

Robert swallowed him down deeper before slowly sliding off of him, his hand wrapped around Aaron’s cock, covered it with precision, and stroked it. Their eyes met, and Robert nodded. “Come on…” he murmured. “Aaron…”

It was his name that did, low and husky on Robert’s tongue and his body curled, and he spurted out and watched himself come on Robert’s chest, and he spasmed at how hot it looked. How fit Robert looked down in his knees in front of him, all pale skin, freckles, and Aaron’s come. 

~~~

Robert breathed heavily, and it just got harsher as he watched Aaron track the come that was on his chest. He glanced down at it and back up again, and Aaron had his head thrown back and looked like he was trying to catch his breath as well. He laughed as he stood up, his brain catching up with everything that happened, and he shook his head. He’d never rushed into sex that quickly in his life, and he had his share of one night stands. All he’d wanted to do was make it clear that he wasn’t straight and that he was interested in doing this with Aaron. He hadn’t quite meant to drop to his knees and give one of the better blow jobs of his life. 

Standing he felt taller than he was as he loomed over Aaron and saw the red on his cheeks and the fell into those dark blue eyes again and touched his face, wanting to feel the stubble against his cheek. Aaron looked like he might slide down the door to the floor, and Robert couldn’t stop the smirk that formed. He’d done that… He leaned in and breathed into Aaron’s ear. “Like that, did ya?”

He got a shrug in return, but Aaron’s lips twitched up into a barely-there smile, but Robert saw it, and he saw the gleam in Aaron’s eyes. “Had better…” he said. 

Robert didn’t believe him, especially when his hands slipped into the back pockets of Robert’s trousers and pulled him against Aaron’s body, pressing Robert’s erection against Aaron’s naked thigh. Robert groaned and couldn’t stop himself from grinding against him, burying his head in his neck and tasting his skin. “Aaron…”

“Bed?” Aaron moaned. 

“Yeah…yeah…” But Robert kissed him again instead, slower than all the times before wanting to learn Aaron’s mouth better. He kept Aaron pushed against the door, one hand on his firm chest and the other on his jawline. He couldn’t get enough of it, their mouths, their tongues and he could feel Aaron allowing him to control it. Felt it in the way he moved, slightly, ready at any second to take it away. Robert wondered what that be like…

“Now,” Aaron groaned and ground himself against Robert’s cock. 

Robert broke the kiss and nodded, he licked his lips, grabbed Aaron by his hand, and dragged him toward his bedroom. He shoved Aaron onto the bed the second they were close enough and yanked himself free of the rest of his clothes. He was hard, of course, he was, he felt heavy as it hit his stomach. But the feel of Aaron’s eyes on his cock made his spin, and he smirked again — he knew Aaron liked what he saw. 

“Ego on you…” Aaron huffed. 

“I have reason…” 

Aaron rolled his eyes, but then they fell on Robert's cock again, and he shrugged in a way that made Robert curious how this man was so grumpy… but it was an idle thought and one that went away as he crawled on top of Aaron and plunged his tongue into his mouth again. 

Aaron opened up for him, melted right into it, his legs wrapped against Robert’s waist and Robert’s cock trapped perfectly between them. He ground down, seeking friction and bit at Aaron’s lower lip. “How..how..” He breathed into his mouth. 

Robert felt Aaron pulled his head back, and it made him pull away. They just stared each other and Robert fought against the heavy urge grind himself against Aaron — he needed friction, he happily rut until he came, but he was hoping and saw a million things swirl in Aaron’s eyes, and he thought he wanted to know every emotion. 

“Yeah…” Aaron murmured like he was speaking to himself. “In me…fuck me.”

Robert nodded and rolled off of Aaron to the left. And opened the bottom drawer of his nightstand, pushing through miscellaneous items until he found a roll of condoms and his lube. He tossed them onto the top of the dresser and looked back at Aaron. He’d curled onto his side a bit and watching Robert, eyes glancing up and down with an odd expression. Robert gulped a bit as their eyes met, but his impulse was to kiss Aaron, so he did. 

Soon enough, he was the one underneath Aaron. Some of that power he’d felt earlier that Aaron been holding back was pushing at him and making his hands go above his head as Aaron assaulted his mouth, neck, and chest, hands scraping his nipples and then his mouth. Robert moaned and writhed underneath him, trying to grind up and find friction. Aaron above him, straddling him, and then he pushed down on Robert’s chest with his hands and leaned up. “Stay.”

Robert arched an eyebrow but found he couldn't move, he wanted to stay.  
Aaron grabbed the lube, and Robert felt his mouth go dry as Aaron started to slick himself up, preparing himself for him. “Shit…” he murmured and time seemed to stop, and he was transfixed watching as Aaron pressed his more of his fingers up inside of himself. Robert watched Aaron get hard again and licked his lips and started to reach out to touch. 

“No,” Aaron swatted his hand. 

“Fuck…” Robert rolled his hips in retaliation, but he moved his hand back above his head. 

“Yeah…” Aaron nodded and leaned up and wrapped a hand around Robert. 

“Shit…” Robert clenched his jaw and looked away from Aaron, afraid if he kept watching he come. He felt the condom being wrapped around him and took a deep breath. His eyes fell back on Aaron in time to watch himself disappear into tight perfect heat. “Shit…”

Aaron groaned until Robert was fully sheathed, then he tipped forward, his mouth falling against Robert’s and kissed him lightly before leaning up and starting to ride. Robert licked his lips and rolled his hips up, couldn’t stop himself… he groaned, lost in the tightness and the heat, wanting to chase it when Aaron moved up and his hands fell onto Aaron’s waist, gripping him tight, needing to touch him. 

They found a fast and punishing rhythm, but Robert wanted more and flipped them, Aaron grunted as his back hit the bed and he bit his lower lip, nodding, his eyes nearly black as they met Robert’s. Robert couldn’t look away from him, as he started to slam harder into Aaron’s body, he groaned in appreciation as Aaron grabbed at his hair with one hand, pulling and his ass with the other. Robert saw and felt nothing but Aaron all around him for what felt like forever. Until he heard a raspy, broken breath in his hear. 

“Robert…” 

And it was too much, and he came, body shaking and collapsed on top of Aaron. They both groaned Robert’s face against Aaron's neck. Tasting the salt of his sweat and breathing in his scent, he sighed as he pulled out of him and rolled over and found himself laughing. 

“What?”

“That happened…” he said with a smug grin.

Aaron rolled his eyes and shrugged. “Had better.”

Robert still didn’t believe him.


	3. The Deal

He wasn't awake, not quite yet, but Aaron felt a weight behind him. It was hard, solid, and unfamiliar, and his whole body locked up, and a jolt of fear rushed down his spine. He blinked away quickly then, moving instinctively away from the weight and found himself falling onto the floor. 

Aaron breathed sharply and looked around at his surroundings. A queen-sized bed to his right and a black lacquered bureau to his left. The carpet was green, and he didn't recognize it all. He heard a snuffle from above him and scrambled to his feet. Rubbing sleep out of his eyes and hoping it triggered his brain awake. But it was seeing the man in the bed that did it… 

"Sugden…" he thought, and he pulled his bottom lip into his mouth. But it was Robert's tongue he was remembering. He was snoring lightly, one arm around a pillow and other stretched across the space Aaron been sleeping. The blanket barely covered the swell of Robert's arse, and Aaron found himself tracking the spatter of freckles that went up his spine. He remembered his nails scratching down his back and wondered if he turned on a light and made the room less gray he'd see his markings. He wanted too, and that was an odd thought — he mind was spinning. 

He'd thought maybe they could hook up, he'd hoped, but he hadn't expected the night before at all. Least of all falling asleep in his bed. He felt vulnerable suddenly and realized he was completely bare and quickly started the search for his clothes. He pulled on his jeans in Robert's living room, grabbed the rest of his stuff, and hurried out of the flat. Locking the door behind him and walking two steps to his own door. It was locked. He swore under his breath and started pounding on it and prayed only Adam would wake up and not Robert. 

"It's four o'clock in the morning," Adam's voice boomed through the door with obvious irritation.

"Ads, let me in," Aaron snapped and looked behind him, afraid of Robert following, and this was probably why he shouldn't have shagged his neighbor at all. 

The door opened, and Adam's expression was comical. Aaron shoved past him, intent on heading right into the shower. But he could feel Adam right on his heels. 

"I thought you went to bed, where were ya?"

"It's not important."

"You do the walk of shame half naked? Where'd you when I was on the phone with Holly?"

Aaron groaned. "I went across the hall."

"Across the hall?" Adam turned in the direction of Robert's flat. "Wait, you shagged the tall blond dickhead who lives across the hall."

He tried to shrug it off.

"MATE…" Adam whistled. "Wait, I've seen a dozen women go and out of that door, all of them looking way out his league."

"So? Doesn't mean much and trust me, mate, he's not straight…" just saying the words at him back in Robert's flat, being slammed against the door. Aaron felt his skin prickle, and he shook it off. "Anyway, I need a shower." 

"No, no, I need details…when did you even meet him?"

"After work, in the elevator…" Aaron rolled his eyes. 

"TODAY."

"Well, technically yesterday, innit."

"MAAATE."

"It's not a big deal."

"You shagging that dickhead isn't a big deal, I just told you always has a string of women…"

"Not tonight he didn't…" Aaron snapped. "Let it go…"

"Oh, no letting go you were pounding on the door half dressed… you know that guy is dead rude all the time.."

Aaron scowled. "What's that matter?" 

"Just saying, never said a polite hi to me or nothing…"

"Probably just not his type, mate," Aaron said and finally got to his bedroom door. 

"No, no, can't be that I'm every body's type," Adam laughed. 

Aaron just closed the door on his face and leaned against it. It wasn't as if he'd never had a one night stand before. But they were usually after a few drinks in a bar and he usually only knew their first name, and he'd never glance at their address as he made his way home. Maybe he'd see their face once or twice again in the same bar, but it was never awkward or anything. This felt like it had the potential to be awkward. He knew too much about him, they even had connections — both being from Emmerdale and all, like Aaron realized suddenly he knew Robert's sister. 

He frowned and decided to just not think about it. He'd just put Robert Sugden out of his mind. He'd met him, he'd wanted to shag him, and that'd happened. It was done and over. He could move on back to his life of pulling whenever he felt like it — and he did. He'd already been in two relationships, and he was still under his mid-twenties. He'd broken free of Ed, and the last thing he wanted was to feel stuck again in a relationship that went from one date to commitment. 

The whole reason he moved to Hotten with Adam was to be his age and do what he wanted when he wanted. Robert Sugden was just a part of that, and he just wouldn't let it get complicated. Why would anyway, he barely knew the guy — and maybe Adam was right, and he was some kind of jerk that wasn't worth knowing anyway. Plus, he didn't have it in to regret sleeping with him, it felt like he was on fire the entire time and what idiot wouldn't enjoy the high of some great sex. 

He grinned a bit and realized he could still feel it all, his body was sore, and he thought it when he moved. He hadn't bottomed in ages, usually not trusting his partners given he didn't know them. He wasn't sure why he had tonight, but it didn't must matter, all that mattered that it was worth it. He had the guy out of his system, and he could move on. If they bumped in each other again, Aaron would just not let it be awkward. How hard could it be? 

~~~

Robert was bone tired. He rubbed his neck because he'd had a crick in it for days from being stuck bent over his desk. He'd been tossed two weeks worth of paperwork one his co-worker's never done before he went off on paternity leave and he'd wanted to shove it back in his boss's face, but he couldn't. He was being tested, he was being watched — the promotion was coming up, and there was no way Leyla Harding was getting it out from under him. He had the seniority, and he was better than her. But it meant he hadn't been able to take any breaks or his usual walk during lunch to clear his head in days. And he hadn't been the gym in a week. He felt old and boring, and he wondered if he could find the energy to maybe go on the pull. 

He needed a release. 

He'd stopped by the store and grabbed a bottle of red wine to guzzle down, he could at least treat himself for that. As he turned the corner to his building, he caught sight of Aaron Dingle walking into it… He hadn't seen him since they'd fallen into bed like two horny teenagers. He blushed thinking about it now, how he'd pretty much thrown himself at him. But he was fit with bloody gorgeous eyes, and he'd been amazing in bed. He'd probably thought back on that night too often, really, when his mind got bored and distracted by work…. He told himself that was the only reason. And he was the last person he'd slept with…

But he was also something else, Robert realized as he walked into the building and saw him still waiting at the elevator. His eyes dropped to his arse, and he realized he was wearing jogging shorts and licked his lips. Aaron Dingle was convenient and a plan was already forming his head as he stepped next to him and gave him a cheeky smile. 

Aaron rolled his eyes, but his mouth twitched up at the corners. "Sugden."

"Dingle."

The elevator doors opened, and they walked in. "Nice outfit," Robert teased.

Aaron shrugged. "Beats that naff tie."

"Naff? This cost a fortune, you know."

"You were ripped off, mate."

"Do you like wine?" Robert asked.

Aaron gave him a hard side-eye.

"Come on, it's not half-bad…"

"You've got some suspect taste."

"Picked you didn't I?"

Aaron blushed then and shook his head. 

"Maybe, I want another go…" Robert lowered his voice. 

The elevator opened a second later, but he didn't move, Aaron didn't either for a beat, and then he stepped out, and Robert hurried to follow. His ego started to bruise, and he feared his plan wasn't working. Aaron stopped short in front of his door and turned toward him. "I'm not in the market for a relationship, Sugden."

Robert screwed up his face. "Who said anything about a relationship, Dingle?"

Aaron raised an eyebrow.

"I don't do relationships as a rule… not since my last one blew up spectacularly in my face. It's not worth the hassle."

"With a woman, right?"

"Yeah, it was a woman, that problem?" Robert asked. 

"Not really…" Aaron said. 

"Good…"

"As long as you don't expect anything…" Aaron shrugged. 

Robert invaded his body space and leaned down a bit near his ear. "Just to come."

Aaron grabbed his tie and yanked him forward, and they were kissing. It turned hot and heavy, fast, almost too fast — but Robert thought maybe that was just their speed together as he felt himself getting shoved backward and suddenly his lower back was hitting his door's handle, and he groaned out in pain. 

"Sorry," Aaron laughed and pulled away a bit. "I need a shower."

"Me too," Robert muttered. "I'll leave the door open?"

Aaron nodded.

~~~

Robert hurried through his shower instead of letting the water pound against his back, and as he tried to relax his shoulders from sitting all day. He rolled them though after he pulled on a simple pair of track pants sans boxers, and decided against a shirt — it'd be one less thing for Aaron to pull off of him. He fully planned on being naked very soon. But there were some things they needed to do first. He walked into his kitchen and pulled out a bottle of beer — it was from a microbrewery, and he could already see Aaron's blue-blue eyes rolling when Robert offered it. He smirked at the image and grabbed himself a wine glass. He was mid opening his wine when his door opened, and Aaron walked in. His hair was a mess of damp curls on his head, and Robert had an immediate urge to push his fingers through it — it was an improvement over the gelled style he'd seen Aaron wearing. He was in short sleeves and trackers as well, and Robert found himself approving. 

Aaron walked toward and picked up the bottle of beer, peering at the label, and sure enough, his eyes rolled. "You think this is a penthouse or something…"

"No, but I'm saving up for one…" Robert lobbed back. 

Aaron laughed, and it showed off his teeth, and Robert wanted to make him do it again. "I kinda believe ya."

"Yeah, me too," Robert admitted. "Truth is, I'm staying here cause it helps me save money, it's a crappy building, but the rent isn't half bad on my salary."

Aaron's eyes ducked down. 

"Hoping for a promotion soon, actually…" Robert said.

"Ok," Aaron shrugged and looked around. "Got an opener?"

"On the fridge."

Aaron walked over and found the magnet on the side of the refrigerator that doubled as an opener and popped the cap on the beer. Robert poured his wine and told himself, he had this all worked out. Either Aaron would say no, and he'd go back to usual pulling on the weekends, or he'd have the perfect nearby stress release while he focused on his promotion. He took a large sip of the wine and watched Aaron drink down the beer. 

"Actually this ain't bad…" Aaron said but scowled all the same. 

"Don't hurt yourself, liking it," Robert laughed. 

Aaron shrugged again. "So…" he pressed. 

"So?" Robert asked. 

Aaron looked around. "I ain't much for small talk."

"Me either," Robert said. "Get enough of that at meetings." 

"Right…" Aaron's eyes darted toward Robert's bedroom.

Robert felt smug. It was going to work. "I just think we should negotiate a bit first, this time."

"Negotiate?"

Robert nodded. 

"About what exactly?"

"This… the truth is like I said I have a promotion coming up and I need to secure it. Which means long hours and extra work and I won't have time to go out and meet people…"

"What you want me to some piece of meat for ya?"

"What, no…" that wasn't right. "I was thinking something a bit more mutual than that…"

"I told you, I ain't on the market."

"And I just need to fuck someone now and again…" Robert said, bluntly. 

Aaron studied him and started to slowly nod. "No strings? No pressure?"

"Not in the mood, just say so, and we'll do it another time," Robert nodded. "We are free agents, but if we're both around and in the mood…"

Aaron continued nodding for a beat. "Yeah, why not…"

Robert grinned and held out his hand. 

"Shake on it, really?"

Robert laughed and closed the space between them. "How about this instead," he murmured and latched his mouth the side of Aaron's neck and felt hands grab at his arse. "Yeah, this works.." He mumbled as he tasted Aaron skin. 

But Aaron didn't let him keep control long, soon he felt himself being pushed backward and he hit his refrigerator — thankfully no handle this time — and Aaron pinned one of his arms to it and forced his lips apart with his tongue. All Robert could do was meet the force of him, lust rising through him, and he went hard in an instant. His hips sought out friction, and Aaron grabbed his hip and pressed himself against Robert's thigh and moaned into his mouth. Robert's eyes rolled back, and he decided he'd go where Aaron took him.


	4. Control

Aaron had Robert pressed against the refrigerator, rutting against him, both of them hard and trapped in their clothes. He'd pinned Robert's right arm to the fridge with left and took control of the kiss. And Robert allowed him, his body sagged with acquiescence, his free hand fell to Aaron's arse and groped but without vying for control. Aaron felt his cock twitch at it and felt like he won something, and he deepened the kiss and pressed Robert's hip with his free hand against the refrigerator he had him pressed again, silently telling him not to move. He grinned when a beat later, Robert's hips jerked and broke the kiss to shake his head. 

"Aaron.." Robert breathed out, and Aaron couldn't tell if it was a plea to let him rut against him, or him listening to instructions. Robert's cheeks were bright red, and his freckles seemed to have doubled. Aaron licked his lips and bent down to kiss at his neck. "Aaron.." Robert's curved his neck against his mouth and Aaron grazed his teeth against his skin, loving the taste of him, inhaling the fresh scent of clean skin and something citrus. 

When lips hit fabric, he huffed in annoyance and grabbed at Robert's shirt and yanked it over his head and pinning both arms against the fridge again. "Stay…" he muttered before his lips landed on his chest, eyes so close to his skin and seeing more sprays of freckles and he half-wondered if he had a kink. He grinned as Robert seemed to sag more into everything, arms still, staying where he was told. 

"Aaron…yeah like that…" Robert breathed as he flicked his tongue of a nipple and rolled the other one with his hand. Aaron noted it as he repeated it and Robert moaned, and his hips jerked, seeking friction against Aaron… Aaron moaned at the contact of their erections, the pull of his clothes and Robert's and the heat of him. They were close, he was pressed right into him, and he decided to sink down, letting his tongue lick down Robert's torso than his belly. Robert laughed as he reached below his navel, and Aaron wondered if he was ticklish. 

He grabbed at Robert's pants and yanked them down. And his cock hit him in the face, not that he was complaining and he stared at it. He hadn't looked enough last time, just known he'd wanted it inside him — which still surprised him but he couldn't blame himself. Long, thick, it was biggest ever seen, and it was bloody perfect. 

"Aaron," Robert's voice was sharper. "If you don't suck my cock…"

"What?" Aaron cut him off and looked up and met Robert's gaze. "What will you do?"

Within a second Aaron felt yanked up and spun around, his back hitting the refrigerator and knocking him breathless — or maybe it happened before that, and his hands were clutching Robert's biceps and pressing into the muscle there, and he felt on fire. Robert kissed him, hard and messy, but it was over to fast. He moved his head forward to chase Robert's mouth but ended up skimming his stomach with his lips and then his cock was in Aaron's face again, his hands in Aaron's hair. 

"Go on… I know you want it," Robert's voice was smug.

Aaron knew he shouldn't find it a turn on but damn if he did. He wrapped his mouth around the head of Robert's cock, and Aaron moaned at his first taste of him on the tip of his tongue and opened his mouth wider to slide down the shaft more. Robert's hands were in his hair, tugging through it with hand and pressing him forward just enough with the other — how did he know? Was it just what he liked too? 

"Fuck…" Robert breathed as Aaron flicked his tongue against the underside. 

Aaron repeated it and got lost in the movement of the blowjob and the feel of Robert, sliding further and further into him. He heard a hard slapping sound and looked up through his lashes. Robert was bent forward a bit, the hand that been tugging on his hair now on the refrigerator for balance, his eyes closed, his cheeks still red and chest heaving. Aaron swallowed around Robert's cock at the sight and elicited a moan from Robert he definitely wanted to hear again. 

"Aaron…" 

Robert was shaking, and Aaron half wondered if he could make his knees give out as he started a faster pace, including everything he'd managed to figure out Robert liked in such a short time. 

"Oh god… I'm gonna…" 

Aaron stood up, wrapping his hand around Robert's cock, stroking it, as he latched his mouth onto the side of his neck, again. He pushed into the refrigerator again, Robert crowding his pace like he wanted to crawl into Aaron. Aaron heard himself groan, and he tightened his hold on Robert. 

"Yeah, yeah…" Robert muttered into his neck. "Fuck…" he cried out as came and Aaron felt it ruining his clothes but couldn't seem to care. He kept kissing Robert's neck, then his jaw and then a tongue was in his mouth, and Robert moaned as he licked in tasting himself on Aaron's tongue. 

They broke apart, breathing heavily, and Robert shook his head, hands grabbing at Aaron's shirt. The second it was off he pulled Robert into another kiss, all tongue, some teeth and then he was kissing his jawline and felt Robert's hands slip inside his pants, wrapping around his cock and he shoved him away. 

"Hey…" Robert blinked. 

Aaron looked Robert up and down. "Tell me you bottom."

Robert looked dazed for what felt too long for Aaron's taste, and he couldn't tell what it meant. No, or maybe he hadn't processed the question, and he was about to step forward again and ask, rather than order it — knowing it had sounded that way like no wasn't an option — which wasn't true at all. But in that same second, he was being soundly kissed again and half expected to meet the refrigerator again but instead he was being pushed out of the kitchen and in the direction he knew was Robert's bedroom. 

He spun around them around once they were inside, remembering the layout of it well enough and shoved Robert toward the bed and started to step out of his pants. Robert watched him, leaning up on his elbows and licking his lips. He stretched backward on his back, his hips lifting up as he opened the drawer he kept his things in from that angle. Long body, thick thighs, and semi-hard cock — already and Aaron groaned. 

"I haven't in a while…" Robert said as he sat up, lube, and condoms in hand. 

"I can be gentle…" Aaron murmured. 

"Don't be…" Robert said, voice soft. 

Aaron pounced on him, and he knew it, knew it looked desperate, but it was hard to care lost in the moment, he manhandled Robert up the bed as he kissed whatever section of freckled skin he landed on. He felt Robert sag into it again, giving up control and he pressed his erection against Robert's hip and felt afraid of coming enough he stilled and bent his forehead down Robert's shoulder and just breathed.

Robert shifted underneath him, just enough to get Aaron to lift his head and their eyes met, and Aaron gulped right before Robert kissed him, softly and sweetly and it was too much, it was far too much, and it made him shove at him again and order him to lay back and spread his legs. 

And Robert instantly followed the command. 

~~~

"Aaron, Aaron…now, now…pleas…" his begging was silenced as Aaron's fingers finally left his body and he felt empty and oddly cold until Aaron's heat was over him and he felt the head of his cock at his entrance. "Do it, do it…"

"I am…" Aaron growled and tightened his hand around Robert's right wrist as he used his other to help guide his cock inside of him. 

Robert flailed with his left arm but kept mostly in place behind his head, his right tightly pinned down by Aaron. He felt out of control, he had, for the most part, tonight — he rarely gave it up, and he rarely bottomed. But here he was in the most vulnerable position he felt he could get and it felt amazing. He liked Aaron's gravelly voice in his hear and the rough of his hands pushing him where he wanted Robert to be, and he wasn't going to question it. He was just going to go with it because it felt bloody amazing — and that was why he'd made the deal with Aaron.

To feel good. 

To get a release. 

To let go. 

Maybe he hadn't foreseen giving over so much control, but he could live it, and he knew, he knew he could turn the tables if he wanted too. But with Aaron bottoming out inside of him, he wasn't planning to any time soon. It stretched, and it burned a little — it been longer than a while since he'd bottomed, but he hadn't given it a second thought when Aaron practically ordered him to say he would. 

It made him hot, and he was positive he'd never felt this much lust for a man in his life, not like this anyway, not enough to let them pin his arm back and just take what they wanted. But that was all he wanted right now. He rolled his hips because Aaron wasn't moving yet, and that was all it took. Because Aaron moved back and started slamming into him. 

"Oh God…" he moaned. "Aaron." 

"Yeah..yeah…" Aaron muttered and leaned down, and they fell into a messy, uncoordinated kiss, tongue and lips, graze of teeth, and Robert's left hand reached back and grabbed at Aaron's arse and tried to will him to bury himself into Robert deeper. Their hips move, and Aaron's cock hit his prostate and he nearly curved off the bed, it threw their rhythm off for a mere second. "Yes, yes…" Robert muttered as Aaron kept finding just the right angle to slam into at. He heard Aaron's low voice in his ear, muttering about how tight he felt and groaned and tried to move his right hand, wanting to wrap it around his cock and stroke it tandem. 

Aaron growled and tightened his hold on Robert's wrist. 

"Aaron, I gotta…" Robert whimpered unsure if he could take more, but he wanted anyway. 

"I've got you…" Aaron's right hand found his cock. 

"OH…"

Within seconds he was coming, and he heard his name repeated into his ear a few times before Aaron collapsed on top of him. The both of them were mess of sweat, and they were breathing hard. They stayed that way, tangled up until their breathe evened out. Aaron pulled out of him and pulled off the condom, the trash can near enough he managed to toss it from the bed. Robert groaned and stretched his arms and then leaned onto his side and stared at Aaron. He was looking up the ceiling, chest heaving, his breath not completely caught yet. Neither was Robert's… he pressed a hand to Aaron's stomach, felt his muscles tense underneath his palm. 

"That seal it then?" Aaron laughed after a moment. 

"Huh?" Robert asked and wondered if his brains been fucked out. 

"Our deal?"

"I say we've got the sex part down…" Robert nodded.

"Sex is the only part."

"True…" Robert nodded. "Then yeah, that seals it."

Aaron nodded and then he rolled off the bed and started gathering his clothes. Robert watched and noticed his eyes felt heavy, but he fought to keep them open, tracking Aaron's movements. Thinking it was shame clothes existed because Aaron was meant to be naked. 

"See ya," Aaron said once he had his shirt on.

"Yeah…" 

Aaron looked him up and down before he turned away. 

"Wait…" Robert called out. 

"What?"

He grabbed his cellphone from his night table. "Put your number in."

Aaron rolled his eyes and took the phone. Then he threw it onto the bed. Robert watched him leave the room and fell back down onto the bed and gave in to the heaviness in his eyes. His shoulders felt loose, his neck felt relaxed, and he felt a deep bone satisfaction. He was bloody brilliant, he thought, he wasn't going regret this deal any time soon. He heard the door to his flat close just as he was drifting off to sleep.


	5. The Bogs

He slept with Finn Barton once, after drinking a lot of beer at a Dingle party in his mum’s pub back in Emmerdale. He doesn’t remember it, not really, just vague memories of fumbling and maybe some noises he’d like to forget he ever heard. Which is why when Finn comes to visit Adam and by extension him he isn’t very thrilled. He is even less thrilled when he ends up in some trendy queer bar that Finn was as excited to go to as he got about comic books. Which was what he was talking about as Aaron tried to pretend he hated the fancy beer in his hands — it reminded him of the beer that was in Robert’s refrigerator. But he shouldn’t be thinking about Robert…

And how it’d been over a week since he last saw him…and Aaron felt confused about the rules of their deal. Did it have to only be when they managed to bump into each other in the elevator? He had his cell number, but he couldn’t bring himself to text him. He looked around and realized where he was — if he wanted sex, he could find it, he was in the right place only. 

“Would you like to dance?” 

Aaron turned and scowled at Finn.

“Yeah…not really dancer are you, well, we could play pool…” Finn gestured to the pool table. 

Aaron glanced around and frowned. “Where is Adam?”

“He got a phone call…”

As if on cue, his cell phone went off and it was a text from Adam: _That bird called, the one from the cafe… sorry, but had to go. Don’t let Finn stay up too late._ Aaron glared at the text and looked toward the pool tables. “Fine, let’s play,” he muttered. 

Finn grinned and headed toward them. Aaron watched him go and wondered what had been in his beer that night? He drank down more of the beer — tried to push Robert out of his head — and looked around and wondered how he was going to pull with Finn hovering about. 

~~~

Robert leaned against the bar, waiting for Connor to get their drinks. He didn’t want to be here, he had important meetings every morning for the next week. He really didn’t have time to be out at a gay club — he hadn’t even let himself give in to the temptation to go knock on Aaron’s door when he vision started to double after he went over the paperwork. 

“Stop it,” Connor said. “You need to relax, you’re wound too tight — not that it doesn’t look bad on you.”

“Connor not going to happen.”

“I’m wounded,” Connor snorted. 

Robert rolled his eyes, he and Connor figured out a long time ago they got along much better out of bed. He took the beer bottle he was being handed and took a long swallow. He knew Connor wasn’t wrong but it wasn’t helping him to feel this. 

“Let’s walk around…I never like to make a quick decision.”

Robert nodded and let him take the lead, letting his eyes fall on a guy here or there — but none of them were making an impression. He frowned when Connor turned toward the pool tables. “Where are you going?”

“Arse watching, Robert…” Connor said as if it was obvious. 

Robert rolled his eyes and wondered again why he was friends with him and walked right into him, nearly making them both drop their drinks. “Why’d you stop moving.”

“Because what is wrong with this picture,” Connor pointed toward a nerdy guy in glasses who apparently hadn’t a clue what do with a pool cue, leaning over a table. 

“He needs a billiard’s lesson?” Robert said. 

“No look…” Connor grabbed Robert’s face, and his eyes landed on the man talking to one of the roaming waitresses. His profile at the perfect angle, his scruffy cheek looked a bit more groomed than Robert was used too and his ass crammed into tight black jeans, that Aaron should obviously live in. “That is like Beauty and the Beast if I ever saw it. I’m making my move…” Connor cackled and took a step forward. 

Robert grabbed his arm and yanked him backward. “No.”

“Oh, yes…”

“No,” Robert said again. 

Connor looked between Robert and Aaron. “I saw him first.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“I didn’t.”

“You didn’t…” he pulled out his cell phone, his heart pounding. He really didn’t want to be here, he needed to leave soon, but if Aaron was here, who was he not to take advantage. He glanced at the guy with the glasses — there was no way they were actually together, was there? He looked around and spotted where the nearest bogs were and quickly sent Aaron a text and headed toward them. 

~~~

Aaron ordered shots because he needed to be more drunk to keep putting up with Finn — he wanted to just blow him off but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He kept looking around, hoping he’d find some poor sod looking at Finn. But that just ended up getting himself smiled at which he would have to scowl at -- even at the blokes, he may have indulged. They were going to have to play a few games before he could even start to talk about them leaving. Finn looked like he was having the time of life, despite being unable to get a ball in the hole. 

“ Your turn,” Finn said.

Aaron went to pick up his cue when his phone trilled. He grabbed it, hoping it was Adam saying he was coming back, so Aaron could inform him of his plot to murder him. Only it wasn’t from Adam. 

Robert: _Go to the bogs. Now._

He blinked and reread a few times, to make sure he wasn’t imagining it and looked up and around him. There was no sign of Robert but he looked back down at the message and quickly typed out a reply. 

Aaron: _You’re here._

“Aaron?” Finn tried to grab his attention.

“I gotta, finish this up…” Aaron muttered to him and turned to sit on the pool table. A text came in. Robert: _Who is the nerd?_

Aaron: _No one…_

Robert: _I’m waiting._

Aaron bit his lip and felt flushed. The bogs? Really? It wasn’t his style, he didn’t do anything in public past flirting and maybe a kiss just to let a bloke know he was interested. But anything past that and it was hands-off until behind closed private doors. He couldn’t just go off to the bogs and let Robert have his way with him…

Could he? 

Robert: _Unless that guy is someone?_

Aaron bit his lip again and looked around, finding the direction of the bogs easily. He looked at Finn, who was sipping his fruity drink out of a swizzle straw and was reminded he wanted to murder Adam. “I gotta…” he cocked his head toward the bogs and at Finn’s nod he stalked off toward him. But he felt uneasy and unsure. 

Until he walked into the bogs and a strong hand yanked him into a stall. It closed behind him, he felt the lock click and then he was shoved up against it, Robert using his full height and a hand on his chest to keep him there. His arousal was instant and insistent, and he licked his lips and stared up into Robert’s eyes. 

“Who is he?” Robert asked.

“Told ya, no one.”

“Took your time.”

“Jealous?” Aaron asked, but he didn’t believe it or buy it, why would he be?

Robert grabbed his face, palms hard against his cheeks, his head shaking back and forth a bit before he slammed their mouths together. Aaron lost his breath a minute, it was entirely inside Robert’s mouth, he thought as he tried to catch up. His hands on Robert’s arms at first, but grabbing at his shirt and trying to pull him closer. 

Robert moaned and slotted his thigh between Aaron’s legs, rutting into him with it, letting Aaron know they were hard. But Robert started to kiss his neck, distracting him momentarily from their cocks. He wondered how Robert knew just where to attack the side of his neck, he felt himself quiver and shoved his tongue deeper into Robert’s mouth. He felt Robert rut against him harder and the hands on his fell to start yanking at his jeans. 

There was the bang of a door opening, and Aaron flashed back to where they were… he grabbed at Robert’s wrists and shook his head. “I can’t…”

“What?” Robert stared at him, incredulously. 

Water started running.

Robert huffed out in annoyance and zipped up Aaron’s zipper, making Aaron hiss because his cock definitely wanted his zipper down. He almost took it back, but Robert unlocked the stall and just pulled Aaron with him out of it and walked out of the bathroom, his eyes scanning the area. 

“There we go…” Robert grinned smugly and pulled Aaron toward a set of stairs. 

“Robert, really, I don’t do public…”

“I’ll find a quiet spot…”

“But…”

Robert slammed him against the nearest wall and pressed his palm against Aaron’s cock, making him groan. “Aaron, Aaron…” he whispered into his ear. 

“Find it quick then,” Aaron bit out and felt a smug grin against the skin of his neck, in that perfect spot and he bit his lip as Robert licked against it, slowly before pulling it away and taking him deeper down some dark hallway. Robert tried a few doors, swearing when they didn’t open, but finally, one opened, and he shoved Aaron inside of it. 

There were desks and boxes and nothing else, Aaron felt himself being pushed against another wall and Robert’s perfect mouth was on his again. He reached up and forced his hands into Robert’s hair — needing to muss him up, wanting to make him feel as undone as he did… he dropped a hand went for Robert's belt. 

“Aaron…” Robert breathed into his mouth, his hands dropping to Aaron’s zipper again and soon there was a tangle of hands and arms and the shoving of jeans and pants. Then Aaron felt his head hit the wall behind him as Robert’s hands wrapped around the both of them. After that, it was hips thrusting and his head thrown back and Robert’s mouth attached to his neck. 

“Robert…harder…” Aaron panted, and then he wasn’t sure who was coming first, but the other wasn’t far behind, and they just stood, curved into each other, sweaty and breathing harsh breaths. 

“Shit…” Robert kissed his neck again and started to sort out Aaron’s jeans for him. “Those jeans are sinful, Dingle.” 

Aaron laughed. 

“My mate wanted to pull ya…” Robert leaned away from him, and Aaron felt like it was the first he’d really seen his face. It made him blush for some reason, and he looked away and heard the clank of Robert cinching his belt around his waist. 

“That was too fast,” Robert muttered.

“You chose the speed, mate.”

“I know…” he looked Aaron up and down. “Let’s go to my place.”

“What?”

Robert smirked. “That was only foreplay, dingle.”

There was a reason he couldn’t, Aaron knew there was… but he was blanking on it. “Yeah…yeah.”

Robert’s grin was dazzling.


	6. Flipped

Knowing he wasn't in his own bed, dragged Aaron out sleep. He ached in all the best ways but stretched out his limps anyway and moved more into the center of the bed. Eyes blinking more fully open he realized he was alone in the bed and frowned. He leaned up, eyes finding Robert's clock easily and saw it was just past three in the morning. Aaron frowned, a million questions racing through his head.... A quick glance toward the bathroom showed the door open and the light off. So, Robert was awake? That seemed the obvious answer, but why? And why wouldn't he have woken up Aaron? He just let him sleep in his bed? It bothered Aaron but he couldn't pinpoint why, but it felt weird, it felt like it wasn't his place to be alone in Robert's bed...

Even if he'd been just fucked senseless in it. He blushed, memories of the club, the taxi ride home and how they'd rushed into Robert's flat, tearing at clothes and Robert pushing Aaron onto his hands and knees flew into his mind. He shivered a bit at all, his cheeks heating and leaned back down, feeling like his breath was lost all over again. 

Then he jolted awake, his mind not allowing to fall asleep too deeply in a strange bed. He rubbed his eyes and realized he was tired, which meant it was time to go. He dragged himself out of bed and told himself his bed was perfectly good, even if after sleeping on Robert's sheets his own felt itchy. He flicked on a light and tried to find his clothes, but all he managed to find was his boxers. 

A flash of Robert yanking his jeans down, at some point, when he'd been pushed against a wall...making him blush and his cock twitch. He rolled his eyes and told himself it wasn't the time. The rest of his clothes were in the main area of Robert's flat -- not too far away probably. They'd fallen onto the bed soon after... He smirked a bit at the memory, hopped into his boxers and left the bedroom. 

He expected more clothes to be right outside of it but there was nothing but a sandy colored carpet. He ran a hand self-consciously down his chest and stomach and padded more fully out of the bedroom. His eyes found Robert, and he forgot what it was he looking for. Robert was bent over a laptop that was set up on the kitchen table. He was shirtless, his hair was an absolute mess, and Aaron couldn't help thinking -- I did that. He was sucking his lower lip into his mouth as he typed things into the laptop in front of him. His expression was intense and focused, and he seemed quite lost in whatever it was he was doing. And Aaron watched him and watched him until he blinked and realized he was standing there and staring. 

He cleared his throat. 

Robert glanced over toward him. Then the bastard smiled, and Aaron forgot what it was he wanted to say -- which jolted him back to reality. They weren't friends, they didn't know each other. They had sex. Great sex. Really great sex. But sex. Just sex and it was the middle of the bloody night, and Aaron needed to go home because there was no more reason to stay. "Clothes," he finally bit out. 

"Oh, yeah..." Robert pointed to his couch, and Aaron looked and saw that all his things were neatly folded up and sitting on the back of it. 

"You folded them?"

"That shirt and those jeans shouldn't be left all crumpled on the floor, they're expensive."

"Are they?" Aaron asked, his mum had given them to him. 

Robert nodded. "Yeah."

"Were a present...." Aaron walked over and grabbed his jeans. He knew they looked great on him and were why he chose them for when he wanted to pull, but they were a bit of a pain to get on. And as he struggled, he felt eyes on him and looked up and saw Robert watching with amusement. 

"I'm not the entertainment."

"You sure, cause I'm quite enjoying the arse shaking..."

"One performance a night, mate."

"I don't think that's in the contract, willing to negotiate?"

Aaron laughed but shook his head. "I need to sleep."

Robert nodded and looked toward his laptop and tapped a folder with his fingers. "I've gotta do this anyway -- I shouldn't even been out tonight."

"What is all that?"

"Work, sales projections, and current trends in..."

"I told ya, I'm sleepy," Aaron cracked. 

"It's important," Robert muttered. 

"Why's that?"

"The promotion, if I get it and play my cards right... I'll get the qualifications to move to a company with more chance of moving up to a position to become a partner... It'd be amazing money."

"Sounds ambitious." Aaron shrugged and wondered what it was like to know you could be someone? He chewed his bottom lip and felt weird and reminded how different he and Robert were. They wanted different things and he couldn't imagine doing boring business stuff in the middle of the night, just because of money? 

"Guess it is... But... I'm more than just farm kid," Robert's voice was hard, and Aaron felt like he missed something. 

"Farm kid? Don't get that looking at ya."

"Good... I worked hard at that too," Robert said and ran a hand over his face. "Sorry."

"No, we're good..." Aaron said. 

"So... Um..." Robert's expression twisted, and he winced. "I... Uh, so that guy tonight? He really wasn't anyone to ya, right, cause... I felt...well not bad, but our deal is clear we're free agents -- so maybe I shouldn't have barged in." 

Aaron cringed, and guilt filled his bones. "Fuck, fuck..."

"He was?" Robert asked, surprised.

"No, no..." Aaron groaned. "No, he's not, he really isn't... I forgot all about him, and I just left him there. Shit, shit, shit..." He looked around and noticed his cell phone was back of the couch as well. He picked it up and sure enough there were a million texts from both Finn and Adam. "Adam's gonna kill me."

"That wasn't Adam."

"No, Finn...his cousin."

"Oh... Just tell them you pulled, sure he'll understand."

"I was meant to be keeping him company...." Aaron sighed.

"He into you?"

"I hope not..." Aaron muttered because he was unsure. 

Robert laughed. 

"It's not funny."

"So... He wasn't someone as he's forgettable... Just you know if you are ever with someone and we bump into each other. You know just say so..." 

"Yeah, yeah, you two... This is just..."

"Sex."

"Yeah..." Aaron shrugged and braced himself. "I better go get murdered..."

"Don't worry, I'll help Adam bury your body if he asks."

Aaron snorted and shot Robert a grin as he opened the door and stepped into the hallway. He found his keys and started to unlock the door, but it flew open, and two faces were glaring at him with the same mixed expression of worry and anger, and it just made Aaron feel ten times worse. But he glanced back behind him and knew he'd probably do it again. 

~~~

Two Weeks later

Robert woke up to his laptop screeching at him, he sat up and the sound immediately stopped. He rubbed his eyes and sighed, realizing he'd literally qwertied onto it -- again. Glanced at the time and sighed, it wasn't even midnight, but he passed out. He loved his job, he really did and the challenge of it but even he got bored of numbers after numbers. He needed to switch up and do some reading on the companies he wanted to sell too and the people he needed to be schmoozing to do it. 

But first fuel, he stood up and wandered over to the refrigerator. He pulled out some heavily caffeinated soda he picked up for this purpose and some fruit to munch on. He drank down half the soda and brought the fruit over to the table. He was just about to sit down when there was a knock on his door. He looked at the time again and got curious. 

Walking over to the door, he looked through the peephole and smirked. Aaron stood there, looking a bit shifty and with his trademark scowl on his face. Robert unlocked the door and opened it. 

Aaron brushed past him and walked right in. He walked around in a circle, chewing his lip, and Robert felt himself getting worried. "Aaron?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Aaron snapped. 

Robert shook his head. "Well, maybe, you should."

"No..." 

"What?"

"This guy got in my face..."

"You alright?" Robert asked, walking closer to him. 

Aaron stepped backward. "Fine."

"Not believing that."

Aaron sighed and crumbled down on the couch. Robert frowned, closed and locked his door and move to sit down next to him and felt relieved when Aaron didn't jerk away when Robert's thigh pressed against his. Aaron seemed to shift into the couch cushions and let out a softer sigh. "Adam would want me to talk about it..."

"Friends do that, huh?"

"Right... And we aren't friends."

"Hell, no," Robert said. 

"Good..." Aaron climbed into his lap, straddled him, and his mouth was hard and insistent against Robert's. He was slow to respond, Aaron was charging far ahead of him, his pace hard, insistent, and angry. It was a fucking turn on, so he caught up fast and fell into the kiss, letting Aaron lead him where he wanted to -- half afraid what might happen if he tried to stop Aaron. But he was getting dizzy with it all, hot and heated and felt a need to slow down and he shoving at Aaron's chest a bit and they parted just enough to see other's face. 

Aaron stared at him and let out a long exhale, his forehead hit Robert's, and he ground down slowly, and Robert realized just how hard they both were, and he groaned but tried to still Aaron, trying to get his bearings -- just a little bit.

His wrists were grabbed, and a rough voice was in his ear. "You aren't in charge this time..."

"Trading are we?" Robert laughed. 

"Maybe..."

"If somethings wrong..."

Aaron silenced him with a kiss. "It's nothing...I'm fine."

Robert wasn't sure he believed him. 

"And I don't want a friend right now..." Aaron bit Robert's lower lip.

"Fuck...yeah, right..." He nodded. "Do what you want."

Aaron grinned. 

Robert's stomach flipped.


	7. Tuesdays

September 

Robert hated Tuesdays.

He was in his car most of the day, checking in with clients, going to meetings, trying to charm new business if he could fit into his schedule — trying to make the extra sales and impress his bosses. He both and hated schmoozing. He simply hated traffic. This Tuesday was already off to a bad start because he woke up to no hot water — the entire building was out, and he wished he could consider looking for another flat. But it was the cheapest rent he could find, for a decent enough place. Even if the building was old. 

And did have one perk no other building could offer. 

Aaron Dingle. 

Robert tapped his hands on the steering wheel as traffic came to a halt again, huffed out a sigh. He was bored. He hated being bored. He checked the time and craned his head out his window a bit to check how traffic was moving further ahead. He groaned and pulled out his phone, opened up a text message, and started to type out a message. 

Robert: _I hate traffic._

He hit send before his brain caught up and reminded him he never even texted Aaron before, well, he wasn’t counting the night int he nightclub. They hadn’t really used their phones at all to initiate contact. Aaron would just show up on his doorstep, or Robert would knock on his door and invite him over. 

It worked. It worked really well, and Robert grinned memories coming back to him, but his gut churned a bit and worried about sending the text. He hadn’t even said anything really, but…

Was it too friendly? 

Too random?

He clenched his jaw and jumped when his phone trilled. Of course, traffic started to move, and he had to focus on the road. Though it didn’t last long not a few minutes later and he was stuck again. He picked up his phone. 

Aaron: _Who doesn’t?_

Robert: _Fair point. Stuck in it, though._

Aaron: _Stuck in a car engine._

Robert smirked as he typed. Robert: _Rather be stuck in you._ He hit send and felt his mind spin again. That was more like their deal, what was a little text banter and sexting — but still, it felt. Was he crossing a line? Aaron seemed fine with it though, he was texting back. 

Aaron: _What if I rather be stuck in you?_

Robert blushed as he read it and squirmed a bit in his seat — he preferred not to bottom — generally. He’d made exceptions before, and it wasn’t he hated it, but he always felt too exposed, like every time he did he was given away a piece of him some guy he never planned to see again. It was too much and Aaron wasn’t an exception to it. 

It was too much.

But Aaron would grip him and manhandling him, and he turned into clay. Just let Aaron mold him, and he wasn’t sure what to do with it — there was no way he would stopping sleeping with him. It was the best sex of his life, and it came without worrying about feelings, or any type of pressure. It was exactly what he needed right now. Work was taking up the majority of brain power, his focus, and he wanted it that way.

But steam needed to be blown off somehow. 

He and Aaron were good at it — he was hoping to keep things he was doing and learning in his head for future conquests. He was wondering if maybe he was just becoming okay with bottoming more — maybe he just needed someone like Aaron to do it? Passionate and confident, so sure of every move he made. It was intoxicating. 

Robert realized he was getting hard and leaned his head back. Traffic started to moving again, and it felt like for real. He breathed through it and by the time he was pulling into a parking space at the hotel, his meeting was at. He had himself back under control. 

Robert: _I’ll be at my flat around ten._

~~~

“What’s that…” Adam pushed into Aaron’s space to read his phone.

Aaron shoved him off and jammed the phone into his overall’s pocket. “Nothing.”

“Nothing? You got a cheeky grin, you look cute…” Adam batted his eyelashes.

Aaron rolled his eyes and got back to work at pulling out the car’s faulty carburetor. But he felt Adam staring at him and looked up to scowl at him. 

“It was Sugden, wasn’t it?” Adam shook his head. 

“What?”

“I’m right…” Adam shook his head. 

“What’s the problem if it was?”

“Don’t know… just think your sex deal is pretty inclusive…”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning… you’ve been putting off doing anything else for weeks.”

“Have not. Just being tired.”

“FIne, this weekend, we go to a gay bar, yeah?”

“Why looking at switching sides?”

“All the men of Hotten wish…”

Aaron shook his head but shrugged. “Yeah, fine whatever… has been a bit and all. Can’t hurt.”

“And no problems with Sugden?”

“No, why would there be?”

“Finn,” Adam said pointedly. 

Aaron groaned. “I said, I was sorry.”

“But were you?”

“Yeah,” Aaron muttered, but he looked away as he remembered him and Robert rutting against the wall of the club. It felt visceral, he felt tingles everywhere he knew Robert’s hands had gripped him. He shifted a bit closer to the car and took in a breathe. 

“Saturday, all right? We’ll make a night of it.”

“Yeah, yeah…”

Adam nodded and turned to go back to the car he was working on. He sighed, watching him and told himself he was fine with it. It wasn’t like he was dating Robert. It was just — brilliant sex. Really brilliant sex. He felt his phone vibrate and pulled it out. 

Robert: _I hate people who are late to meetings._

Aaron: _Maybe he’s stuck in traffic._

Robert: _No, he’s here, his office has glass walls._

Aaron: _What kind of architectural choice is that?_

Robert: _Daft one if you ask me and also make you look dumb when you have the secretary lie about you not being in yet._

Aaron: _He didn’t._

Robert: _Did. Thought her eye roll as she said it might injure her._

Aaron snorted. 

Robert: _Oh, wait, he’s gracing me with his presence…remember 10._

Aaron glanced at the time, it wasn’t even three o’clock. Instantly the day felt like it had too many hours left in it. But it would give him time to go for a run and — hopefully, a shower? He swore under his breath, remembering the water was out, and he hoped they had it fixed by the time he got out here. He didn’t want to show up at Robert’s grungy and covered in grease. His flat looked expensive. Robert looked expensive. It was why he knew Robert as perfect for a no strings but amazing sex relationship… 

There was no way he'd look at Aaron twice otherwise. 

~~~

Victoria was already at the table when he got the restaurant around 8’clock, half an hour late. He felt grimy and sticky and tired. All he wanted to do was go home and shower. But he’d checked in with the landlord and been told the water situation was still unfixed. Which put him in a mood, they’d had all bloody day, how hard was it to fix? He sat down with a groan, slumped in his chair, picked up the wine his sister ordered for him and downed half of it. 

“Bad day.”

“The worst… and I didn’t hook any new buyers. Seriously, I need to get my numbers up.”

“Can we not talk about your work, that’s dead boring.”

“Sorry, sorry… How are you?”

“Great, great. Ellis got a loan for the gym he wants to open.”

“That’s great, how is his business plan?”

“In hand, Robert.”

“What? I’m just offering…”

“No. You’ll try to take over.”

He nodded. 

“Diane is good, she asked about you — wants you to come down for a family dinner.”

“No.”

“But, Rob.”

“No,” he snapped. “Bad enough, I’ll be coming for Christmas.”

Victoria beamed. “You remembered your promise.”

“I don’t break promises to my little sister,” he said softly. 

“Smart, that, really smart…”

Robert’s mouth was open to cockily agree when he was suddenly yanked up from his chair, and a familiar face was right in front of him. “You son of a bitch…”

“Whoa, whoa…” he shoved the guy away. “What the hell, Wyatt…” he felt panicked and looked from him to Victoria. 

“What am I playing at?” Wyatt snapped. “Chrissie ruined my career, because of you… I have had to start my clientele up from nothing again. I was sitting pretty, and then I went and fucked you.”

“WHAT?” Victoria gasped. 

“Yeah, lady, I wouldn’t sleep with him. He’s one of those bisexual deviants, jumping from bed to bed…”

Robert punched him, and it felt like he broke his hand on his jaw. He felt hot and hazy and angry. At being outed, at being called a deviant and the panic was rising higher and higher as he realized his sister knew. She knew now. And he’d been thinking about telling her, only her, only ever her…

“Rob…”

Victoria’s hand was on his arm. He stared at her and realized he couldn’t talk. A manager was suddenly in front of them. “I’m going to have to ask you all to leave.”

“Rob?”

Victoria grabbed their things, his arm, and pulled him outside. She walked down a few blocks and then pushed them into another restaurant and found them a table in a back of it. Sat him down and walked to the bar. He watched her and felt like he was in some sort of dream.  
“Okay,” she sat down with more wine. “You better start talking.”

“I hate Tuesdays.”


	8. Stuck In

It hurt to look at Vic, so he picked up a menu and stared at it. Not that he saw the words and it didn’t stop him from feeling her looking at him — in that way she had that made him think about their mum. He wanted to look at her, and he wanted to offer an explanation. The true explanation and not the lies that were in his head, lies he always used to spout when caught — that looking back, no one must have bought. They were ridiculous, and the sounded it in his head now — he’d at least come that far. 

“Rob,” Vic pressed. 

“Not…” his voice broke. “Not yet, Vic.”

“Okay,” she said. 

He dropped the menu and saw her smiling at him. 

“It’s okay, you know,” she said. 

“Is it?” he whispered. 

She rolled her eyes at him with a headshake. “Let’s order, I’m starving.” 

“Yeah, okay.” 

~~~

“Isn’t your morning runs enough exercise,” Adam asked. 

Aaron shrugged.

“We’d be home by now if we took a taxi and you hadn’t gotten us roped into that minute brake pad switch.”

“It was an old lady, wasn’t it,” Aaron shrugged. He hadn’t wanted to stay late, but he couldn’t tell the woman no either. 

“Why are we walking….” Adam whined. “I’m tired, and the shower better be bloody fixed.”

“No one said you had to walk with me…” Aaron muttered. 

“I just don’t get why? It’s been like two weeks of this… running in the morning not enough exercise for ya?”

Aaron sighed and realized the real reason, Adam, been walking with him the past week. He knew something was up, but he didn’t know what — and he was happy his friends and family were protective of him, watched out for him. But it was an inconvenience at times that they could get so overprotective. 

“It’s nice weather.”

“It’s about to rain.”

“Well, we’ll get a shower in then, won’t we…” Aaron snapped and picked up speed. 

“You’re not gonna talk, are ya?” Adam called after him.

“Doesn’t look it, does it?” Aaron snapped back. 

“Then I’m calling for a ride, have at it.”

Aaron shook his head, but he kept walking — he couldn’t avoid it forever, the summer would end and walking to and from work would stop being an option. But the drivers seemed to have quick turnaround — he hoped anyway. It was irrational, and he was avoiding things. But he’d been avoiding for years, pushed it back in his mind and most days, for most of the year he could forget about all of it… 

Just sometimes something triggered the bad memories, and a few awakes it’d been a cab driver who looked just enough like his father to throw him into a tailspin and make him avoid rides for a while. It wouldn’t last forever, he’d get it back to the recesses of his mind. 

It was fine. 

And if not, he had a fit neighbor who was willing to let him get lost in the present and forget his past. 

~~~

Robert forgot about his hand. Maybe it’d been adrenaline and panic that kept him from noticing. But it hurt like hell by the time he hit the button for the elevator. It was going on eleven, and he frowned — Aaron probably thought he’d blown it off. He pulled out his phone, and there was nothing there. He winced as his hand ached, and he looked at it. Swollen mostly with no broken skin. He’d ice it when he got in and settled down into his new nightly ritual of paperwork and research. His next few meetings needed to go better than today's. 

The elevator finally managed to get to his floor and stepped out and was surprised to see Aaron in the hall. Though his hand was on his own doorknob — which could mean anything. Robert hoped it meant he'd just given up on his arrival and was now happy to see him. 

“You’re late.”

“Sorry…there was…” he trailed off, he wasn’t going to talk about Wyatt outing him to his sister. That was too personal, it shouldn’t be on the tip of his tongue. “Long day, everything went wrong…”

Aaron shrugged.

“It still going wrong?” Robert pressed and dangled the keys to flat from his good hand. 

“Don’t know…” Aaron looked down at his hands. “Bit greasy and…”

“Water still out?”

“Was when I got here.”

Robert sighed. 

“So, yeah, I’ll…”

“You’re fit how you are,” Robert said. 

Aaron looked at him and shook his head. 

Robert matched his head shake and stepped into Aaron’s space and reached out. Grabbing his hip with his good hand and tugging lightly. He grinned when Aaron moved with it and looked up at him, their gazes locking for a brief second before Aaron looked away. Robert pulled him closer and whispered in his ear. “I want you.” 

Aaron looked up again, eyes on Robert’s mouth. 

Robert leaned down and kissed him. 

Aaron grabbed at his jacket to pull him closer, his mouth opening, and Robert sighed into it and felt most the days stress fall off of his shoulders. This was why he’d invited him over, this was his reward for getting through the bloody day. He deepened the kiss, both his hands lifting to Aaron’s face, craving the feel of stubble against his skin. But he winced as the pressure hurt his right hand and cursed himself for punching Wyatt.

“What happened?” Aaron had his hand in his. 

“Punched someone.”

Aaron stared at him. “What?”

“It’s a … I don’t want to talk about it..” He pulled his hand out of Aaron’s hold. 

“It needs ice.”

“I know.”

Aaron rolled his eyes and grabbed his keys from his other hand. Robert watched him open the door and walk into his flat. He looked behind him. “You coming or staying in the hall?”

Robert shook himself out whatever trance he’d fallen into and followed him. He went to his freezer and ended up choosing a frozen bag of baby carrots. “Want a beer?”

Aaron shrugged. 

Robert was pretty sure it was yes… He grabbed two and walked over to his couch and slumped down on it. Aaron took his beer from him and sat down next to him. “Other guy look worse at least?” 

Robert laughed. “Don’t know, got me and my sister kicked out of a place.” 

“How’s Vic?”

“Right, you know her…weird.”

Aaron snickered. 

Robert leaned back, and he could feel everything in his shoulders again. 

“You look shattered…maybe…”

“Don’t you dare…” Robert hissed. “I need to relax.” 

“How you want to go about that?” Aaron asked. 

Robert looked at his hand under the baby carrots and at Aaron, eyes falling to his mouth. “Blow me.” 

Aaron’s cheeks went red, but he nodded. Robert felt his stomach drop as Aaron dropped to the floor in front of him, knocked his legs further apart than they already were, and started undoing his belt. 

Robert licked his lips and lifted his hips to let Aaron yank his trousers down, and he started undoing his bloody tie with his left hand, realizing he was still in a bloody suit. Aaron seemed to notice too and lifted up on his knees higher, his hands on Robert’ thighs and helped him get out of his blazer and tore the tie off completely. He unbuttoned Robert’s shirt, kissing his skin as he found it. 

“Aaron...” He was already hard. 

“Patience,” Aaron tsked. 

“Not though,” Robert pushed on his shoulder. 

“Alright…” Aaron nodded, and Robert shifted — idly wondering how Aaron knew when to cave in and when not too. How did he read him so well? The thought vanished when his mouth wrapped around the head of his cock. His hips jerked, and Aaron swallowed him further. 

“God…” Robert moaned, and his hand fell into Aaron’s hair, and he tugged, and it made Aaron hum around him and flick his tongue just right. “That, that..fuck, harder…’

Aaron’s hand tightened around him, and his tongue pressed harder. Robert felt the tension start to melt again, and he slouched down and watched his cock slip in and out Aaron’s mouth — his lips glossy with spit. It was perfect, and his hips jerked, and he kept praising him because it was all hot as hell. His grip on his hair tightened, and he head fell back. He was dazed and hypnotized, and his orgasm shocked him — jolting him forward just a bit, eyes opening to watch Aaron swallow it all down. 

“Fuck…”

Aaron looked up at him then gazes lock, red high up on his cheeks and licked his lips with a small cocky grin. Robert huffed out a laugh and nodded his head. “Fine get a big head about it…”

“I did,” Aaron pointed out, standing up and Robert could see his cock through his jeans. 

His hand was in in a flash, and Aaron hissed.   
“We getting that stuck in me or not?” Robert asked. 

Aaron cursed.


	9. Shower

“Yes.” Robert grinned when water sprayed out the sink in his bathroom. He ran his hands over his face and looked into the mirror. He frowned at the mess his hair was, and after his long day and two rounds of sex with Aaron, all he wanted to do was turn on the shower and live under a spray of hot water. He looked toward his bedroom as he thought it and saw Aaron. He was asleep though while Robert was in the bathroom, he’d star-fished a bit, taking over more the bed, his face was buried in Robert’s pillow instead of his own. Robert bit his lip at the sight of it, at the round of his ass under the sheet and made a decision. 

“Aaron?” he called out as moved toward the bed, hand already reaching out before he got there, so it touched Aaron’s upper back on arrival. “Aaron?” he called again and pressed down on him. 

It happened fast. One second Aaron was asleep and the next he was scrambling like he was burned, rushing away from Robert and breathing heavily like he was scared. Robert, on some instinct, reached out to touch him again only to get his hands slapped away. 

“No,” Aaron shouted, and Robert took a step away from the bed. Then Aaron was blinking at him and looking confused. 

“Shit… Sorry, I…” Robert wasn’t sure what he’d just done. “I…Are you okay?”

Aaron’s eyes were aware now, and his were looking Robert up and down, slowly recognition seemed to form behind them. “Don’t do… I don’t like being woken up like that,” Aaron muttered voice low from sleep, and he wasn’t looking at Robert.

“Sorry,” Robert said. 

“What is it? Want me out?” Aaron was looking at Robert’s clock. 

Robert glanced at it and realize it was going on four in the morning, not that it mattered to him. “No…uh, water is back and thought maybe shower sex?” It felt wrong to offer it now because it was obvious he’d done something wrong, and he wished he could take it back. 

“Oh,” Aaron looked toward the shower. “Yeah…alright.”

“Yeah?” Robert was surprised.

This time when Aaron looked him up and down, there wasn’t confusion in his eyes, not at all and he leaned up onto his knees and moved closer. Grabbed Robert’s hips and looked up at him. “We’re both naked.”

He blushed for some reason at that and wasn’t at all sure why, so he ignored it. “Come on then.”

Robert went straight to the shower and turned the knobs, starting to set it to his perfect temperature, which ran on the hot side. He frowned and turned to ask Aaron if that was okay when lips smacked right onto his. There was the muffled sound of his surprise, and it made Aaron laugh, but they didn’t break the kiss. Robert slid his hands up Aaron’s ribs, which made him giggle, so Robert slide his hands back down. 

“Stop it…” Aaron muttered, breaking the kiss for a second. 

“Just confirming the information,” Robert mumbled into it. 

Aaron started pushing him backward. 

Robert felt the water hit his back and remembered what he meant to ask. “Is it too hot for you?”

Aaron pulled away and looked at him confused and ran his hands down Robert’s chest following the water… “No.”

Robert blushed again but laughed. “The water.”

Aaron’s cheeks went red, and he shook his head. “It’s fine.”

“But I’m better?” Robert smirked.

Aaron rolled his eyes and shoved him all the way into the shower, and his back hit the wall, and he groaned. He never did this, and he was sure it wasn’t his thing… But Aaron would crowd into him, and all he wanted was too trapped between him and hard surface. 

“Like that?” Aaron asked with a smile. 

“Who’s being smug now?” Robert ran his hands down Aaron’s arms and watched the water crash over him and sighed. He was bloody gorgeous, he thought and found himself sliding down the wall. His eyes zoned in on Aaron’s cock, and he was sure it was close to perfect. He gripped his hips and looked up, blinking a bit to get used to the water hitting his face. 

Aaron grabbed his shoulders and moved them so he was blocking the spray, and Robert focused back on his cock, watching it harden more under his stare. He looked back up, and Aaron was biting his lip. Robert flicked out his tongue and licked the head of him, teasing and tasting. 

“Shit…” Aaron growled after a minute. “Rob…” he whined. 

Robert smiled and wrapped his hand around his cock, loving the weight of it in his palm and stroked. He looked up, and Aaron was glaring at him with dark eyes. 

“Fuck,” Aaron groaned his hips jerking into Robert’s hand. “I want…”

“Yeah, you want?” Robert asked, smugly. 

“I hate you…” Aaron hissed. 

“No, don’t think so.” Robert licked his lips. 

“Your fucking mouth, Rob…come on.”

Robert stopped stroking him with his hand, and Aaron whimpered at the lost of contact. “What, doing what you want…” 

“Arsehole.”

“I know…” Robert mumbled as he swallowed Aaron’s cock. The weight of it was even better in his mouth, pressing against his tongue and swallowed all that he could in one go and groaned at the taste of Aaron. _He’s perfect_. 

“Fuck, shit, fuck…” Robert heard Aaron’s hand slap against the shower wall. 

He grabbed Aaron’s hips again and started to really suck him off, finding a rhythm and moaning when Aaron started to tug on his hair. It made him take him in deeper, and they both sighed out in relief at it. 

“Rob, Rob…”

Robert looked up and met Aaron’s gaze, he pressed his tongue harder against the underside of his cock and sliding from his hip to Aaron’s balls. 

“Oh shit…” 

Robert swallowed it down as he came, and then Aaron tugged him and attacked his mouth. It was messy and desperate, and Aaron groaned as he tasted himself. His hand wrapped around Robert’s cock and he hissed at the touch and the pressure… noticing suddenly, he was aching for it. “Aaron…”

“I’ve got you…’

Robert nodded and thrust into his fist and came faster than he wanted too, but it was hard to care. He groaned into Aaron’s shoulder, and they both started laughing for some reason. Robert lifted up and pressed a kiss to Aaron’s mouth and ran a hand through his hair. It was wet and curlier than he’d ever seen it. “Nice…” he whispered. 

Aaron blushed and looked away. “Shut up.”

“Alright, pass me my shampoo. 

~~~

Aaron watched Robert at his stove. He’d insisted on making them something to eat because both of them were wide awake after the shower. Aaron looked at his cell and saw it wasn’t even six yet… It was strange, though, because he felt rested, he felt like he’d really slept for the first time in a while. He glanced at Robert who was humming something under his breath as he cooked. He shook his head but smiled and looked around the flat.

The sunrise was coming right through his living room windows, and Aaron could see it for the first time in the light. It wasn’t cluttered and messy like his and Adam’s. There were no clothes or jackets scattered over the furniture, and the magazines Robert had were neatly piled on his coffee table. Aaron wondered over and picked up on — it was a car magazine, one he hadn’t run across before, and he started to flip through it.  
He wanted nearly every car he saw and wished he owned one. He needed one, he thought, he could avoid cab drivers. He flinched and tried to push it away, but he remembered how afraid he’d been when Robert woke him up and bit his lip. That hadn’t happened in ages, and he knew why it’d happened now, he blushed and glanced at Robert. Thankful he hadn’t pushed — he never did, he never pushed or asked questions when Aaron was on an obvious edge. Aaron felt a rush of gratefulness, and it made him look away from Robert. Back to a car, he could never afford. 

“Aaron?”

He looked up, and Robert was standing there holding two plates. 

“Where’d you go?” Robert asked, raising an eyebrow and handing over a plate. 

Aaron took it, and the fork balanced on it nearly fell, but he caught it. 

“Good reflexes,” Robert said and sat down on the couch next to Aaron. 

Aaron nodded. “I was just… wish I could afford a car.” 

“Oh…” Robert nodded and ate a bit of his eggs. “Don’t you work at a garage?”

“Yeah, why?” Aaron asked his mouth full, he’d been stuffing his face. Robert’s eggs were better than anything he and Adam did — now he knew they were screwing up eggs. 

Robert made a face. “Couldn’t your boss help you fix up a junker or something?” 

Aaron’s eyes widened. 

“Help you afford one, if you really want it.”

“Yeah, uh… hadn’t thought of that.”

“Check it out,’ Robert said with a grin. 

“Yeah, uh, I will…” Aaron swallowed the eggs in his mouth. “Do you have ketchup?”

“No, no…you are not putting ketchup on what’s left of your eggs.”

Aaron laughed and stood up.

“Where you’re going.”

“To get the ketchup,” Aaron grinned. “And something to drink.”

“There is just water or beer, for that… I need to go shopping.”

Aaron laughed and pulled the ketchup out of the fridge. “Success.”

Robert groaned as he poured it over the eggs. 

“Thanks though, they’re good.”

“Yet, you’re ruining them.”

Aaron shrugged and took a bite. “Yep, even better with ketchup.”

“God…” 

Aaron glanced at the time and decided he really needed to get back to his own flat. Not that he hadn’t enjoyed the morning with Robert and he glanced him and smiled. His hair was still damp and flat falling over his forehead. It made Robert look younger and fit — though he was always fit. Aaron finished off his eggs and put the plate in the sink. He walked over to Robert and straddled his lap, taking his plate out his hands and put it on a table that was within his reach. 

Robert’s hand settled on Aaron’s thighs, and Aaron bent down and kissed him. Robert sighed into it and grabbed onto him harder, and Aaron pulled back and shook his head. “Not starting anything.”

“Funny way of doing that…” Robert said and kissed his jaw. 

“Yeah, just saying goodbye.”

“Are ya?”

“Uh huh…” Aaron grabbed his face and kissed him. 

Neither of them felt Robert’s flat until after seven.


	10. The Headache

October

Robert: _Ever notice the sky gets more blue in October?_

Aaron: _No._

Robert: _Not a cloud gazer?_

Aaron: _Better things to do then have my head in the clouds._

Robert: _Your loss then_

Aaron shook his head and shoved his phone back into the pocket of his overalls and went back to work doing a catalogue on what needed to be done to the 2011 Alto in front of him. It hadn’t been brought into their garage but his boss done some calling around for Aaron when he broached him about wanting a car to fix up for himself. And now here it was, black and sleek, maybe a bit stuffier than he would have picked for himself. But it worked and from what he could tell. It wouldn’t take to many parts to fix up, and that was all his boss was charging him for. Out of his paycheck, Adam might have to cover a bit more of their rent and utilities for a bit. But he seemed fine with it, and he’d been making noise at maybe bugging his step-father Cain for a junker for himself. Kept going on what a smart idea it was but Aaron was keeping it to himself it was Robert’s idea. 

Robert. 

He shook his head, did he notice the sky was bluer? What kind of question was that? Though it was typical, really, Robert’s texts wouldn’t make sense to any normal person. He asked inane questions or just nattered about weird things that happened to him during the day. He either had the weird clientele in the world or he might make the shit up. Aaron couldn’t tell, and he bent over the engine, deciding to work on getting out all the wiring he would need to replace until the next tune up on his roster showed up. This was more important than lunch. 

He was well into it when he heard Adam laughing. He looked up and gave him a confused scowl. 

“Is that Shake it Off?”

“Is that what?” Aaron said.

“What you’re humming, mate… It’s Shake it Off. You know by Taylor Swift.”

“Is not…” Aaron snapped feeling weird had he really been humming? He didn’t know one song by Taylor Swift, and he planned to keep it that way. 

“No, no, it definitely is… where you pick that up, radio station stuck on that twenty something’s car when you checked the new brake pads?”

“What, no…” Aaron always turned the radio off, you never knew what travesty you might end up stuck with. But he groaned when he’d gotten to Robert’s the other night, he had the radio on. Some dreck playing as he finished up some paperwork. He told Aaron to sit down with a beer and watch whatever on his television. But the music had been kept on, even after Robert stopped working, turned off the television from the action movie Aaron kept and straddled his lap. 

“Oh, no, don’t tell me…” Adam groaned. 

Sometimes Aaron wished his best mate was a dumb as he looked. 

“It was Sugden wasn’t it…”

“It wasn’t anyone, wasn’t even humming…” Aaron heard his name shouted from across the garage. “Next tune-up is here… if you have time, work on getting some of those bad wires out will ya?”

“I’m gonna actually eat my lunch, unlike some people,” Adam laughed. 

Aaron scowled at him and pulled out his phone. 

Aaron: _I fucking hate Taylor Swift. Why do you bloody listen to that shite?_

~~~

He was getting a tension headache, and Leyla was yapping at him about the latest office gossip. And he seriously didn’t care that one of their bosses was clearly banging both his secretaries. It wouldn’t be exciting until the two women figured out for themselves. Then it would probably turn into a bloodbath, but at least it’d be fun to watch it all go to hell. His phone chirped and buzzed on his desk and used it as an excuse to get away from Leyla’s judgemental rant. As if she’d never cheated on someone, he knew her sad relationship history — she never shut up about that either. 

“Important call,” he lied to her and got up and walk out of the office to the little picnic area they had outside. It used to be a smoking area but then the building went smoke-free, so it was used for lunches in better weather. It was a bit nippy out but not to bad and he hoped the fresh air would do some good. 

He looked at his phone and smiled. It was from Aaron, opening it he raised an eyebrow and chuckled. Aaron accused of strange and random texts, but this took the cake. What was it even about? He sat down at a picnic table and looked up at the sky. Definitely bluer, he thought and nodded himself. He would spend hours as a kid back on the farm, just laying in a field and staring up at the sky. Thinking about being anywhere else but a field on a farm and staring up at the sky. 

It was relaxing he thought, looking upward but he was getting a crick in his neck and refused to let the thought he was old be anything more than an idle and quick thought. 

Robert: _I have no bloody clue what you’re on about. If no cloud gazing, how do you relax?_

“Robert, you’ve got a bloody phone call from Hammond, and I’m not your secretary,” Leyla shouted from the door. 

“Why did you answer my phone then,” he shouted back and got up to get back to work. Hammond was possibly his worst client. Exacting, detailed, intense, and not willing to take no for an answer about anything — including things Robert had to say no too. So it was always a challenge, but his head still hurt, and he really wished Leyla had let it go to voicemail so he could use the excuse he was busy until he wanted to handle him. 

But he picked up the phone with his warmest voice and preceded to placate the man utilizing pretty much all of his energy and charm. He felt worse when he hung up and rubbed at his bleary eyes. He shook his head and looked at the time. “I’m taking a lunch break… Let my calls go to voicemail,” he snapped at Leyla. 

She just rolled her eyes. 

He was halfway to his car when his cell chirped at him again. 

Aaron: _Besides doing you, you mean?_

Robert smirked and climbed into his car. 

Robert: _Your favorite hobby, huh? ;)_

Aaron: _Don’t have hobbies, mate._

Robert shook his head and started his car and winced his radio blasted on. It was a Taylor Swift song, and it made him laugh as he turned it off. His head just seemed to be getting worse and not better. Food will help, he thought. He walked into the small family-owned dinette place he liked and walked up to the counter. 

“Hi, Robert the usual?”

“Uh… no…” he rubbed his temples. “I think just some toast, fruit and a coffee.”

“You look knackered, I give you the strong stuff.”

“Thanks…” he muttered and sat down at his usual table. He pulled out his phone. 

Robert: _Have a usual for lunch?_

Aaron: _Food._

Robert laughed. 

~~~

Aaron: _Adam’s doing my head in._

Robert: _How so?_

Aaron: _Singing that bloody Take it off Song._

Robert: _What song?_

Aaron: _Taylor Swift shite_

Robert: _Oh. Shake it off._

Aaron: _Your bloody fault._

Robert: _How so?_

Aaron: _Heard it at yours didn’t I._

Robert: _Well what kind of music do you like?_

Aaron: _Nothing you’d know._

Aaron rolled his eyes and scowled at Adam. “Will you cut that out,” he hissed. 

Adam laughed loudly, and a bunch of people turned to look at them. Aaron wanted to disappear and wished he hadn’t let Adam talk him into an after-work pint. He should have stayed at the garage and worked on the car, more if they weren’t just going straight home. 

“Texting the boyfriend?”

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Only guy you’re seeing… thought it was casual.”

“It is, I don’t need to be dating a new guy every week.”

“Could try to pull someone else though… let’s go out this weekend.”

Aaron made a face. He didn’t want to, but it wasn’t about Robert. It wasn’t. He just wasn’t feeling it. The hassle, the getting dressed up, putting up with Adam as his wingman — he was horrible at it. He just wasn’t in the mood. He’d rather focus on the car, getting it fixed up and getting himself out of cabs for the foreseeable. 

“Aaron, you need this man. If you’re not at his place, you’re just working, running, and eating.”

“So?”

“What is it? You’ve been off for a while.”

“Have not,” Aaron muttered.

“Is it something about Sugden?”

Aaron rolled his eyes. “You talk about him more than me… no, it’s nothing to do with Robert.” It was true. Robert was the calmest place in his life right now, the place he could go and not have to put up with people trying to control his life in some way. Adam and trying to get him to pull, his mom still on his case to move back to Emmerdale. Promising him more freedom in the same breath as she nagged him. He was getting tired of it. He just wanted to live his own life on his own terms. Robert never put any pressure on him. 

“I’m getting us two more pints.”

Aaron nodded and opened his phone. 

Aaron: _Tonight, around 11?_

Robert: _Yeah, I’ll leave the door unlocked._

~~~

Aaron ran his fingers through his hair and then scowled at himself in the mirror. He turned around and unzipped the hoodie he’d tossed on over a black t-shirt and made his out of the flat. Adam watched him from in front of the telly, and he could feel him rolling his eyes. But he didn’t care, so he walked out of the flat without a see ya later. Took two steps across the hall and opened Robert’s door. 

The apartment was dark, which had Aaron blinking as he tried to adjust to it. He expected to find Robert bent over his laptop, doing whatever it was he did for his job at his kitchen table. But all he saw was the laptop, the paperwork and half-empty glass of water. 

“Robert?” he called out. 

All he heard in response was coughing. He frowned and followed the sound, toward the bedroom and found Robert sitting on the edge of his bed in nothing but boxers and coughing. He looked pasty, and his eyes looked glossy. Aaron stood at the door and frowned. 

“Sorry,” Robert finally said. “Had a headache all day, decided to try a nap and woke up coughing up…” he broke off to cough again.  


“Sick then, aren’t ya,” Aaron said. 

“Not good for the mood, huh?”

Aaron shrugged. “Lay back down, I’ll get some water.”

“There is some paracetamol in the cabinet to the right of the sink… head is still killing me.”

Aaron nodded. He grabbed the half-empty glass, rinsed it out and put in some cold water from the tap on Robert’s fancy fridge and found the paracetamol bottle. Walking back in, Robert was sitting up in his bed now and glaring at his covers. 

“Shouldn’t you cover-up?”

“Too hot,” he whined then started coughing.

“You have cough syrup?”

“No,” Robert shook his head. 

Aaron bit his lip. “Here. I think we do…” 

“Aaron…”

“Just a second…” Aaron yelled over his shoulder. 

Seconds later, he was through his own door. 

“What’re doing back so fast? He have someone else over there?”

“What? No…” Aaron opened and closed cabinets.

“What are you doing?”

“Don’t we have cough syrup from last time one of us was sick?”

“Bathroom…” Adam said with a confused shake of his head.

Aaron went to under their bathroom sink and found a nearly full bottle of it. “Perfect,” he muttered and left again, ignoring Adam’s call of his name. 

He could hear Robert coughing the second, he opened the door to his flat and shook his head. He hurried into the kitchen for a spoon, then straight for the bedroom. “Here,” he said, but he felt weird about it all of sudden and looked away from him. 

“You didn’t…” Robert coughed. “Have too.”

“You can barely breathe with all that hacking.”

“Yeah, real sexy, huh?” Robert sighed. 

Aaron looked at him. He was pale, he looked sweaty, and maybe he should look awful. But he didn’t. He bloody fit and bit his lip and stared at him. “You’re okay, I guess.”

Robert blinked at him and smirked. Then he lifted the bottle of cough syrup and squinted at the directions. “Bloody headache has my eyes blurry…”

Aaron grabbed it and turned it around. “Alright,” he muttered and grabbed the spoon. Before he knew it, he’d fed Robert two spoonfuls of the stuff, and their eyes locked right afterward. Both of them with red cheeks and Aaron turned away again, closed the bottle up, and put it next to the paracetamol bottle. “Uh, get some sleep.” 

“Yeah…” Robert coughed. 

Aaron nodded at him but frowned. “Don’t care if it’s hot,” he muttered and pulled the blankets up and over Robert. 

Robert rolled his eyes, but he smiled. 

“I’ll…” Aaron swallowed. “Text ya, in the morning, yeah?”

Robert nodded. 

Aaron started back to his own flat.

“Aaron…” Robert called out, somehow managing not to cough.

He turned.

“Thank you.”


	11. Freckles

It’d been two days since he’d seen or heard from Robert. Aaron sat on his couch, flipping stations on the telly and glancing at his door. It was Friday night and Adam gone off with some of their other mates, but Aaron just wasn’t in the mood to go. Adam had given him a look and seemed to decide it wasn’t worth the hassle of trying to wheedle him. Aaron was grateful because right now all he could really deal was work and working on his car. It was coming together pretty quickly, and he’d be able to drive it out of the garage by next week, he thought. 

Aaron looked at the door again and fidgeted with his fingers. It’d been two days, he thought. Again. It was going through his mind all day, and he kept trying to stop it. He wasn’t Robert’s keeper or anything. They’d gone longer without contact. Though that’d been months ago, wasn’t it? Robert looked pretty awful last time he saw him, and he couldn’t help wanting to know if he was better or not. 

It was the nice thing to do, he supposed to check-in. He looked at his phone and then back at the door. It was dumb to text when Robert was just across the hall. If he was home, maybe he wasn’t, it was Friday night. But Aaron got up and walked out of his flat and knocked on the door. 

Robert opened it, hair a mess and just in boxers and t-shirt. It was casual and strange to Aaron. He was usually so dressed up, nice jeans or trousers, stupid button-down shirts with elbow patches and sometimes a tie. Aaron liked this better, he looked more approachable, like someone Aaron would have something to do with… He shook that out his head, they weren’t anything really. 

“You look better,” he said and wished he’d sounded less relieved. 

“First day I’ve felt human, really,” Robert muttered and turned around, leaving the door open for Aaron to follow. He went to his couch and picked up a paperback book from the seat and put it on his coffee table. “Want a beer?”

Aaron shrugged.

Robert’s mouth twitched, and he went to the kitchen. He came back with two beers and shook his head. “Not sure ready for this, but tired of juice.”

Aaron nodded and took the offered bottle. 

“Been going a bit stir crazy, but ran out of work, cause Leyla — my co-worker is apparently a mother hen at heart and she wouldn’t send me anything extra. Instead, I got sent soup.”

Aaron shifted feeling uneasy at the mention of someone else. “Soups nice.”

“It was pretty good,” Robert sighed. “So, been catching up on my rereading.”

“Your rereading?” Aaron shook his head. 

“Yeah… decided to reread a few books I loved as a kid. It’s been fun.”

“Can’t sit still long enough for that…”

“Might if the right book. My mum…” Robert trailed off. “Anyway, uh… thanks, you know, for the other night. I was well out of it. Woke up a few hours later and wondered if I dreamt ya.”

Aaron laughed. “Nah, I’m real.”

Robert looked at him. “Yeah.”

Aaron felt trapped in his eyes. 

Robert leaned forward and kissed him. 

Aaron sighed, and his hands landed lightly on Robert’s chest. Robert’s hand lifted, thumb pressing into his cheekbone. Their mouths moving slowly against each other, and Aaron felt his insides flip, and it felt terrifying. But he didn’t stop the kiss, that didn’t feel like an option. 

He felt Robert pressed into him and started falling back as Robert climbed over and Aaron clutched at his shoulders and deepened the kiss. He welcomed the weight of him and tried not to focus on how it felt familiar and only focus on that it felt good. 

“Hmmm…” Robert hummed as his mouth moved from Aaron’s to his jawline, and he settled a thigh between Aaron’s legs. He lazily kissed his jawline for a bit before finding Aaron’s mouth again. 

It was lazy Aaron realized a few minutes into it. They were just snogging and petting each other in places with their hands but not seeking out skin, not seeking out friction. Though he was hard and he could feel Robert against him, and it was all making him dizzy. He started to feel overwhelmed by it all and tried to talk himself into either pulling away or pushing for it all to stop being so chaste. 

Robert beat it him to it by pulling away, though not far, and gave him an odd look before moving off him and sitting correctly on his couch. Aaron followed suit, and they both just sat there and breathed. Until Robert yawned and Aaron frowned. 

“Sorry…” Robert muttered and glanced at him. “I’m just still knackered.”

Aaron shrugged and realized he should leave. This wasn’t what they were, but he found himself stuck to the couch. Robert kept glancing at him, and Aaron kept waiting for him to kick him out. Because this wasn’t them. 

Robert leaned forward and turned on his television, he flicked the channels a bit until he found Top Gear. Then he settled back and found where they both put their beer bottles. Aaron looked at them and wondered how they hadn’t spilled them. Robert handed him his again and gave him an odd smile. “Watch with me a bit… tired of just myself.”

Aaron nodded. 

~~~

It felt surreal. Though maybe that was just what was left of his cold. They were watching Top Gear and talking… about the show, cars, nothing. Robert didn’t know, and it felt strange, but he didn’t want to stop it. Which might be a problem? Yet he kept no doing anything about it and got them two more beers. He felt too floaty off of them, and he was probably right, and he wasn’t ready for drinking. But he liked it, and he slouched down more in his seat and started glancing at Aaron more and more. 

He was fit. Bloody beautiful really and he licked his lips. The kiss earlier, well kisses, really, had been different. It’d reminded him of being a kid and thinking snogging was the best invention ever made. That wasn’t… that wasn’t what he was meant to be doing with Aaron, though… 

He wondered how he’d kept his hands off him, though as he watched Aaron tilt his head back as he drank out of the beer bottle. Watch his lips around the bottle. Aaron was too fit to not undress, he thought, and he stared at the hoodie he was wearing. It was a pullover, rather than his usual zip-up ones — probably because the weather was getting colder. It hid Aaron too much, hid how fit he was, and Robert wanted to see it. 

“Aaron?” his voice was oddly low. 

Aaron looked at him. 

Robert reached out and took the beer out his hand and stuck it on the coffee table. This time when he kissed him, it wasn’t soft, and Aaron was right there with him. Robert felt his t-shirt being ripped off, and then he had a lapful of Aaron — that was always a good thing. He struggled to find the bottom of the hoodie and growled a bit. “You’re overdressed, Dingle.”

Aaron pushed his hands away and lifted up his hoodie and the shirt he had underneath it off of himself and crashed back down to kiss him. Robert flicked his tongue into his mouth and moved Aaron on his lap so they could feel each other and grind together. 

“Fuck…” Aaron breathed into his mouth as it happened. 

“That’s the idea.”

But Aaron pulled away, and Robert whined at it, but then he was staring into blue eyes that were brilliant with kindness and felt a weird buzzing under his skin that had little to do with the beer going to head. “Are you well enough?”

Robert nodded. “If you do most of the work.”

Aaron smirked at a glint shining in his eyes. 

“Yeah, I know you like it, being the boss of me.”

Aaron surged forward, and Robert just caved in and rode the odd buzzing feeling and felt all his bones melt as Aaron took complete charge of everything. 

~~~

Aaron woke slowly and wondered when he’d fallen asleep. It slowly drifted back to him, mostly because as his eyes opened, he found himself staring at Robert’s face. He rarely crashed asleep after sex, but here he was, sleepy and tangled up in Robert’s arms and legs. It made him blush and try to open his eyes more. Blinking against the light, they’d left the light on neither of them probably even noticing it. 

Robert’s breath was deep, and even, Aaron found himself staring. At the angle of his jawline, the shape of his lips, making him feel the sense memory of everywhere they’d been. Robert pressing kisses onto any inch of skin he could reach. Aaron stared at his face and bit his lip, his lashes were blond, and he even had freckles on his eyelids. His hair was over his eyes, he needed a haircut, but Aaron found himself hoping he wouldn’t get one. He liked it, and his hand was moving through Robert’s hair before he realized he’d decided to do it. 

His breath caught in his throat at the action and a fear Robert would wake up and catch him. But his deep and even breathing didn’t abate… He probably needed the sleep, he was still sick. His voice low and a bit hoarse all night but Aaron loved listening to it. They’d talked, about nothing really, a lot like Robert’s stupid texts. He’d missed them the past two days, and he shouldn't have he thought. 

He should get up. 

But he stared at Robert instead. 

He started noting the patterns in his freckles, found himself idly wondering just how many were on his face alone. He bit his lip and followed a chain of them over his nose… 

Until he realized what he was doing and he jolted. Wide awake suddenly and he hurried out of the bed and started chasing the trail of his clothes until he was dressed enough to walk across the hall. His heart was hammering in his chest, and he felt clammy with panic. 

He just needed to get away from Robert. 

Far away.


	12. Angst x 2

He was half asleep and searching for something, his body moving toward the left of his bed because his arms felt empty. His face landed in a pillow, and the smell of it wasn’t his own. He inhaled and thought _Aaron_. He woke up that second, eyes wide as he stared at the empty space. The disappointment that rushed through him was shocking, and he sat up and scrubbed a hand down his face. Robert looked at the time, and it was going on six in the morning, and it was perfectly normal for Aaron to be gone. It wasn’t like he stayed that night — that one time with the shower been different. They’d woken up while was dark out and just carried on. 

Last night wasn’t that, though it’d been unexpected and Robert felt exhausted but satisfied. He’d slept harder than he’d managed in days and it was all the sex — it was just the sex. His eyes closed and he remembered the snogging, the two of them just lazily kissing on his couch with the telly droning on in the background. 

It felt far from casual, and he felt — uncomfortable. Robert couldn’t pinpoint why, and he sank down into his bed more and stared at the ceiling. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Aaron. He liked him, maybe more than he wanted too… But they were supposed to be casual. It was meant to be just sex, but the lines felt blurred, and he wasn’t at all sure where they stood. 

Maybe they needed to restate the deal and the rules. 

Maybe he needed to go out on the pull — but he didn’t have the time. That was part of the whole reason he’d made the deal with Aaron. He was close by. It was meant to be convenient. He had too much work to do, and now he had it piling up cause he’d been sick for most of the workweek. 

He had to go in today, he didn’t care if it was Saturday. He needed to get the things from the office, Leyla refused to courier over. He was better, or close enough to it. He could breathe through his nose, and his head didn’t feel like it was falling off. He just needed to get his head down. He would focus on work and nothing but work for a bit — maybe go out with someone. He had plenty of people he could call for a date.

Why did it feel wrong to even think? He shook himself. He wasn’t getting attached to Aaron Dingle. There were a million reason why he shouldn’t get attached to Aaron Dingle. They wouldn’t fit together, for one — they had totally different life goals. Though Aaron was dead smart, and he could do so much more with his life…

“Stop.” Robert pushed his blankets off himself. “Work, Sugden. Focus on getting that promotion… if you take a break, do what you usually did before you met Dingle… just take a break and if you bump into him, reestablish the rules.” 

_Great now he was talking to himself._

~~~

Aaron gulped down his coffee too fast, and it spilled over his hoodie. He stared down at it and grabbed tea towel and dapped it. He was shattered, but he hadn’t been able to sleep. He kept thinking about Robert. Which was why he needed to do something to stop himself thinking about Robert. He felt antsy and stood up and walked around his flat. It was small, and their furniture crowded everything, but at least Adam wasn’t home. In fact, he had no idea where Adam was, and he was pretty grateful. He’d be giving his two cents about Robert…

It was never good. 

Robert wasn’t really that bad. 

Maybe that was the problem. He liked him too much? It wasn’t like they were actually mates, that’d been part of the appeal. He wasn’t looking for a mate. He wasn’t looking for a boyfriend. He wanted to see what was out there, learn a bit more about himself. 

And he wasn’t doing any of those things. 

Robert was just meant to be there to scratch an occasional itch. Somehow though it’d crossed over into something else — and that was bad, it was a mistake. It was a mistake...

He wasn’t the type of guy who counted freckles. He didn’t even notice freckles. He never thought the word freckles in his life until recently. What was that? He shook himself and swallowed the rest of his coffee. He needed to remember why he moved in with Adam in the first place. Freedom, to do what he wanted and how many guys he wanted without his Mum expecting him to settle down immediately on knowing someone's name. He wanted to not know their names. He wanted to live his life and be his age -- for once. He was only in his twenties, not even mid yet, and he wanted to live.

First thing was to get his car in order. He’d go to the garage and work on for a while, then he’d find Adam and make his day by agreeing to hit a few bars, maybe get a bit drunk and pull someone else. 

Someone not blonde.

Someone with bloody freckles.

There was someone out there fitter than Sugden… 

Aaron growled at himself, scowled and grabbed his keys. His car, he was going to focus on his car. It was the next step in his life for great freedom. Freedom to live his life on his terms and his terms only. And speaking of terms, he was telling Sugden they needed to set some firmer boundaries because things had gotten out of hand. 

~~~

Aaron thought his name was Craig, or it might be Greg. No, Clark, maybe? But it doesn’t matter because he came here to find someone forgettable and remind himself what a one night stand looks like. No strings attached because apparently, he needed to remember what that looked like. He needed to remember he wasn’t looking for anything right now — if he could just stop reminding himself that was what he was doing and do it though, it’d be great. 

Robert…

No. 

Craig, his name is Craig and if it’s not who cares. Aaron leaned forward and touched his bicep. They were bulky through a grey jumper, and Craig’s eyes were dark and his hair darker. He had more scruff than Aaron, and it wasn’t usually what Aaron liked on other men — but it’d do. He was fit — enough. Aaron wasn’t comparing him at all Robert. 

Nope. 

Craig smiled and leaned further into Aaron’s space and spoke near his hear to be heard over the music playing in the club. “Let’s get out here?” 

Aaron nodded because he hated to speak over the music. Craig nodded, and they started walking in the same direction. Aaron a half step behind him until they were out of the building. Craig grabbed Aaron’s arm then and pulled them down an alley. 

“I don’t feel like waiting to do this…” he said, and he started gently backing Aaron against the wall of the building. Aaron stepped with it, but when his back his the wall and Craig’s body was crowded right into his personal space, his bulk felt too heavy, and Aaron felt trapped. He felt trapped and all his muscle tense, and he shoved Craig away like he was repulsive. 

“What the….” Craig looked confused. 

Aaron tried to catch his breath, but he felt panicked and he couldn’t. He didn’t understand it. Craig hdone nothing wrong, not really, in similar situations he would usually just take control once he and his partner were kissing. Switch the roles if they and took the initiative, and usually it went fine and if the person didn’t like that — Aaron said so long. It was how it always happened, and it was how he kept himself from panicking. 

He couldn’t remember the last time he panicked liked this because of feeling encroached upon and his mind spun because Robert pushed him down all the time, Robert shoved him against hard surfaces, and Aaron doesn’t remember tensing at all for any of it. 

The memories make the panic worse, and he slumped down to the ground, head bent down and tried to remember how to breathe. Craig tried to talk to him, but Aaron couldn’t hear him, his voice too unknown to penetrate through the haze of panic and confusion. “Adam, Adam…” 

“Mate,” Adam’s voice appeared out of nowhere, and Aaron thought it was fast and knew his sense of time was warped. But he could hear him, and he tried to follow his voice. It was softer than usual, but Adam had learned from experience not to be too loud when Aaron fell into panic. “Aaron?”

Aaron finally saw the world around him again, and there was no one but Adam in front of him. He was relieved, but it wasn’t out of embarrassment. It was confusion and irritation, and he felt more out of control. 

And the last time he felt this out of control only Robert been able to make him slot the pieces of himself back together into something resembling himself. And he couldn’t go to him now. He just couldn’t because the last time they’d been together was too soft. And that pissed him off because he needed them to sex right now, quick and dirty sex. He needed the deal they made, the no questions asked sexual outlet. 

Aaron needed to get that back under control. 

“Aaron?” Adam’s asked. 

“I’m fine.” He stood up.

“No…”

“I am, alright,” Aaron hissed. 

“What happened?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing. You freaked that guy right out, Aaron. You’re having a panic attack.”

“Was,” He snapped. “Let’s just go home.”

Adam sighed. 

Aaron kept stalked ahead. 

“You know, someday you’ve gotta talk to someone about this…”

“No, I don’t.” 

~~~

Robert forgot her name right after she told him and he was trying to listen her talk about her vacation to some island — he’d forgotten the name of that too. He was trying to focus on her at all. But his mind kept drifting, and he couldn’t manage to hear more than two words out of her at a time. Maybe her voice was irritating, though he didn’t think that was the problem. He swallowed some of his wine and tried to stop thinking about work and Aaron. 

It was like his brain only had two modes at the moment. He kept thinking about the research he’d left undone about a new client that was sitting on his table. And he blamed Aaron for it because when he was trying to do the research, he kept thinking about Aaron. It was a car dealership, and he kept wondering if Aaron sorted himself out a car. And it was stupid to wonder about that because he didn’t know for a reason. 

They weren’t mates. 

Did he want to be?

No. Aaron was supposed to be convenient, not a mate. Aaron’s too close to home, he thought — and didn’t mean their flats. It was Emmerdale. Aaron was too close to Emmerdale. The only thing they maybe had in common was cars — it was ridiculous to think they were friends. Why, because the guy been nice to him when he was sick? He was kind, Aaron was kind — and good. And he wasn’t, he knew that… He wasn’t a good person. He wanted to be a good person, but he wasn’t. 

“Are you listening to me?”

“No,” he said and tried to give a charming smile. “I’m sorry, I just…distracted.” 

“Anything I could help you with?” She slid a hand onto his thigh. 

He looked down at it, and her painted fingernails and up at her glossy lips. 

“Robert?”

“This isn’t going to work,” he muttered more to himself than to her. 

She blinked. 

“Are you married?” 

“What no?”

“Girlfriend then?”

“No… only relationship I have is strictly no strings…” _or it’s supposed to be._

“So you’re what some user, bet that woman feels so lucky.”

“It’s a man actually.”

“YOU’RE GAY… why the hell have you been wasting my time.”

“I’m not gay,” he snapped and pulled out some money. “For the drinks,” he told her, and he stalked off. He went right to his car and slumped in a seat and felt the wine buzz through his veins. That and irritation and the same feeling of disappointment that laced through him when he woke up and Aaron hadn’t been there. 

“Fuck…”


	13. Different

“Why am I here?” Vic asked as he handed her a glass of wine. 

“For dinner.”

“Yes, Robert Sugden’s Salmon entree…”

“I thought you liked it,” he muttered and sat down across from her. 

“I’m just teasing ya, why are you so grouchy?”

“Been sick, a bit, behind at work.”

“You mean behind on the extra work you load up on.”

“My bosses like initiative, it wouldn’t hurt you try.”

“Who says I don’t… Marlon, rather I follow…”

“You could get a cooking job here, you know, one with opportunities.”

“Rob, I’m not moving away from Emmerdale. Our whole family is there. They miss ya.”

Robert shook his head and picked up his wine. 

“Rob?”

“I know, I know, yes, you’re here for a reason. I just…” he put the wine down and looked it. “Let me finish one glass first, and we should eat before the food gets cold.”

“Alright,” Victoria said and tucked into her salmon. 

It was quiet, and Robert couldn’t tell if it was uncomfortable or not. All he knew was he didn’t like it. Too many things were going on in his head and thing he was he wanted to spit them all at his sister. But he was only going to manage one if he didn’t bottle it. And bottling, it felt like a good choice. But he couldn’t get that woman out his head. Not that he regretted not pulling her, he could’ve if he’d really wanted too — not wanting to was another problem. Aaron wouldn’t leave his head, but this... That woman assuming he was gay, everyone assuming he is gay because of the men he’s slept with. It almost knocked Aaron out of his head. He was tired of it, he was tired of pretending it didn’t matter him and he was tired of not telling the truth. 

And if he was going, to tell the truth. It had to be to Vic. The only person in the world who loves him unconditionally. He doesn’t understand why or even how she does it. He knows he doesn’t deserve, but she was always there for him. Even when she was angry at him and he appreciated far more than his sister would ever know. 

“Seeing anyone?” Vic pressed.

He finished his glass his of wine. “I didn’t mean precisely as I swallowed the last drop, Vic.”

“I’m impatient by nature.”

Robert rolled his eyes. 

“Rob, you’re my big brother, I love ya, nothing…”

“Vic, I know, really doesn’t need to say it…” he knew she loved him, but he hated hearing it — it hurt somehow, and it made no sense. But maybe it was how complicated everything else was with his family. 

“Then trust me.”

She was probably the only person he did trust… he glanced in the direction of Aaron’s flat and shook himself. 

“You seem more distracted than I expected.”

Why was she always so observant? 

“Just got a few things going on, is all…” 

“Okay.”

“I…” he reached for the wine bottle and filled his glass again and topped her off. “I want to tell ya, I do, it’s just hard.”

“I could ask questions.”

“That’ll just clam me up.”

“Okay…” she picked up her wine glass. 

Robert sighed. “Do you remember the farm helped we had when I was fifteen?”

“No,” Vic laughed. “Was just a kid, Rob.”

“Yeah…” he winced a bit, bad memories surfacing and he hated he brought it up. But he needed her to understand. “Do you remember Ellie Saunders?”

“Again, no…”

“Well… um. I had this huge crush on Ellie Saunders, she had red hair and dimples and this really great laugh. And kept trying to make her laugh because of it and was never sure what to do with my eyes or hands around her.”

“Aww…” Vic grinned.

“Yeah… well the farm helper…uh, his name was Charlie. He was taller than me, a bit older, not much, and he had great arms, and I liked his voice. I wanted to keep him talking all the time just so I could hear it. And I liked his hands, and I would catch myself staring at him and have to look away. Because…”

“You liked him.”

“Yeah.”

“More than Ellie?”

“No,” Robert said. “Just as much as Ellie. It wasn’t different, not really. I had crushes on both of them.”

“Okay,” Victoria said. 

Robert blinked and stared at her.

She shook her head and smiled. “You know who I do remember.”

“Who?”

“George O’Reilly.”

Robert turned bright red.

“Caught you two, you know. I was so mortified, I hid my room for a week. I didn’t want to know what I caught ya doing and don’t go giving me details now…”

“Shit…” Robert couldn’t look at her. He and George snuck around a lot, for a few weeks while his dad was Spain visiting Annie. He’d stopped it when Andy had almost caught them. 

“Anyway, he wasn’t around for long, and then you were all over Katie.”

“Not my best hour,” he muttered as guilt pooled in his stomach.

“No. And well, I never really realized it was weird until I was a bit older. Then I just thought you were weirder than I already knew… Then I got older and learned a lot more things, Rob. And honestly, I don’t care if you like both.” 

“You don’t?”

“I care you’re happy, Rob… which you aren’t.”

“I’m fine.”

She gave him a look. 

“Yeah…”

“We good?”

He took a deep breath. “I uh… So, Vic?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m bisexual.”

~~~

Adam stuck a beer can in front of him and sat down. Aaron looked away from the episode of Top Gear. He wasn’t really watching and looked at him. “What?”

“Anxiety attack, foul mood?”

“I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not. What happened? I don’t think that guy did anything he looked right freaked when he found me.”

“Just had a wobble.”

“A wobble? Haven’t seen you freak out like that in a long time, Aaron.”

Aaron shrugged. It was true. He’d been fine for a long time. It’d just taken that cab driver to bring it all up again. It was like the world tilted out and he was walking on quicksand. It never knew when it’d rear up at him again and last night being crowded into that wall just had… 

It’d been like he was back in time and unable to fight back. He glanced toward Robert’s flat and shook his head because he was confused about it. Because Robert crowded into his personal space all the time. Robert slammed him against hard surfaces, and it did nothing but turn him on. And his head was already confused enough about Robert. He didn’t want to know this or think about it. He wanted it to mean nothing. 

He needed to get it buried again and get back to forgetting Gordon existed. 

“Aaron, mate…come on talk to me. This have something to do with Sugden?”

“What? No…” it was the truth. 

“Well, you keep looking over there.”

“It’s nothing… he and I just need to discuss a few things,” Aaron picked up the beer. 

“But it has nothing to do with last night?”

“Nothing at all.”

“Not the first anxiety attack you’ve had…”

“Adam?”

“Should I be telling…”

“Don’t, Adam, don’t tell my mum. I’ll never get off my back. I need to breathe.”

“I know, alright, but you scared me.”

Aaron sighed. 

“Yeah, you did, you scared me…so…”

“I’m handling it.”

“It?”

Aaron shook his head, he would never speak it, it would never be said out loud. It was bad enough it was in his head, no one else ever needed to know. He felt like crawling out of his skin and shifted where he sat. He swallowed the beer. “I’ve dealt with it before, will again, alright?”

“You can talk to me.”

“I know, Ads, alright.”

Adam nodded, but Aaron could tell he wasn’t satisfied. 

“But… if you have another one, I’m telling your mum, Aaron. I don’t like it.”

“I won’t.”

“Yeah, alright.”

~~~

It was one in the morning, and Aaron couldn’t sleep. It was all looping around and around in his head. It all started and ended with Robert. He’d fled the other night because it’d gotten too soft. But now his body was buzzing with intense anxiety and the strong need to forget the things in his past that made it uncomfortable to be in his own body. And the last time he needed to forget he’d found it by fucking Robert senseless. It’d quieted everything down, it’d made it all bearable, and he caused it all, he’d been in control of it. 

He felt like he was flying and couldn’t land right now. 

Aaron sighed and tried to stop thinking about Robert. Tried to stop feeling conflicted. Tried to tell himself he needed to stay away from him longer because they needed to reset their boundaries. They’d blurred a few lines, and it’d gotten confusing.

He wasn’t missing his face.

He was missing his body. 

His was missing what he could do with his mouth and his hands. 

It wasn’t more than that. 

It wasn’t.

Aaron got out of his bed and walked through the flat. He opened the door and crossed the hall. And knocked, loudly, and continuously until his fist almost hit Robert’s chest. 

Robert blinked at him, his hair soft against his forehead and only in a pair of boxers. Though, so was Aaron, so it wasn’t like they weren’t even here. There were on the same ground. Except Robert looked like he could sleep — Aaron envied it. 

“Aaron?”

“I need to fuck,” he said.

Robert’s eyes widened.

“That is the deal, right?”

“Well…”

“Then let me in.”

Robert stepped back, and Aaron hurried into the apartment. He turned as Robert closed the door and started to crowd into his space. Robert grabbed his shoulders though and pushed him backward. Aaron frowned. “What?”

“Let me wake up a bit, will ya?” Robert muttered.

“Don’t really need to be all that awake for this.”

Robert stared at him. “Are you alright?”

“Why do you care if I am or not?”

Robert stared at him and slowly nodded. “Guess, I don’t…?”

“Do, don’t, I don’t care…” Aaron moved forward and crowded Robert, so his kitchen counter was at his back. “I want to fuck.”

“You’ve said…” Robert said, and his hand pressed against Aaron’s crotch and looked into his eyes. “Not exactly hard are you?”

“Won’t take much.”

“What will it take?” Robert asked, and he shoved Aaron backward, hands landing on his hips and twisted him. Aaron’s back hit the refrigerator and his stomach twisted, but it was pleasant, a buzz started to form under his skin, and he looked up at Robert.

Robert pushed into him more and leaned down and kissed his neck. “What if I want to be in charge, huh?” 

Aaron’s eyes fell closed and he refused to wonder why it was different with Robert. “Do it, I don’t care, I just need to fuck…”

“Yeah,” Robert’s mouth latched onto a spot behind his ear.

“Rob…” he groaned, and his hands fell on Robert’s ribs. 

Robert kissed the skin there again and again. “Doing it for ya?”

Aaron pressed his erection into Robert’s thigh. “Told ya it wouldn’t take much.”

“Yeah, alright…same,” Robert laughed, and he leaned back, but only enough to press even harder into Aaron, trapping him even more between the refrigerator and Robert’s body. Hands grabbed his face, and Robert’s tongue was suddenly in his mouth and demanding. Aaron felt something lift off of him as he just caved into it and maybe it hadn’t been his plan. But it was working, he could Robert take charge… 

He wasn’t going to question it. 

As long as the sex was hard, dirty, and fast. 

Robert maybe read his mind, Aaron didn’t know, but suddenly he was being spun around by strong hands and pressed faced first into the refrigerator his cheek hit a magnet, but he didn’t care. Robert was yanking down his shorts and pulling his arse cheeks apart, and Aaron’s eyes rolled back when he felt the first lick of Robert’s tongue against his hole. 

His brain shut down the way he wanted, the way he needed, there was nothing but Robert’s tongue, pressing deeper and deeper into him. He felt like his legs might give out, but there was a strong hand on his hip, a hard pressure that might bruise — and god he wanted it. Then Robert’s other hand wrapped around his cock and started jacking him off, long and hard strokes. 

“Robert…Robert…Rob…” he didn’t know his name, but he knew Robert’s because it was the source of the perfect mind-numbing pleasure. He came and wished immediately he hadn’t, he wanted it to last forever. But he was being manhandled again and kissed soundly and passionately. 

“Shit, Aaron…” Robert muttered as he shoved Aaron onto the bed. 

Aaron stared at Robert, thick cock obviously tenting his boxers, and he licked his lips and turned around onto all fours, that was how he wanted it. Robert moaned and walked to get the condom and the lube, his eyes staying on Aaron the whole time. 

Aaron stared back. 

“You’re bloody…” Robert ran a hand down Aaron’s back to his arse. 

“Fuck me already.”

Robert nodded.

Moments later, Aaron bit his lip and fell immediately back into that space where his brain lost all thought and only knew pleasure. This time a full one with a bit of a sting but he wanted it and knew Robert’s cock was the best way to get it, and he moved his hips back, his body into and felt Robert’s breath on the back of his neck. “Do it..” He muttered impatiently. 

“Give me a second…” Robert’s voice was strained but then moved back and started and hard and fast rhythm.

“Robert… harder, yeah, Robert…” 

“Fuck…” Robert grunted and collapsed onto him.

Aaron felt pressed into the mattress as Robert’s weight pressed into him and for a flicker of a second, he expected panic to edge into the pleasant buzzing numbness he felt that he needed, that he craved. But it didn’t come, because Robert pressed a kiss to his shoulder and lifted up. Pulling out of him and then rolling on to his back. Aaron stayed on his belly and stared at him, or tried not to, tried not to stare at him and reminded himself he was fit and great in and bed. And that was the only reason he was here. But it didn’t last long cause he slipped right into sleep.


	14. The Talk

“Aaron…” it fell out of his mouth on a exhale. Robert hadn’t caught his breath, and he wondered if he ever would. “Aaron…” he repeated and wasn’t even sure what he wanted to say to him. He just wanted to talk he thought and remembered that they needed to talk. There was no answer, and he turned to his side and found himself staring at a sleeping Aaron Dingle. 

_He’s bloody beautiful._

He wanted not to think that, but he couldn’t stop it. It was like it taken up residence in his brain, and he was too tired to fight it at the moment. He would work on it later, he thought and found himself staring at Aaron. Maybe he shouldn’t be surprised he passed out, not with the way he came charging into the flat like a fucking tornado and asking Robert to fuck him. Or maybe he’d asked to fuck Robert? He couldn’t remember, all he knew was he wanted Aaron — too much maybe, he bit his lip and tried to take his eyes off Aaron’s face. Only they dipped down the length of Aaron’s body, and he was beautifully naked, and he felt his hand wanting to caress the swell of his ass and up his spine. But he held back, remembering how Aaron waking up terrified that time he’d woken him. 

He didn’t want to wake him, though a part of him thought he should. The sex was over, and the sex was why Aaron was here — he’d made that clear enough. Not that Robert was complaining. It’d been amazing, it felt like fire, and he couldn’t help wondering if Aaron was maybe ruining him for anything other than intense fiery fucking. 

He licked his lips and grabbed the blankets he’d kicked to the bottom of the bed when Aaron woke him up and covered them both them. He shook his head, remembering that it’d taken him a bit to really wake up. To hear what Aaron was asking — Robert frowned a bit. He’d almost said no, something about the wild look in Aaron’s eyes, the way he was holding his body. There was a tension there that hadn’t been right. He’d seen it before and caved into it easily — like he did tonight. He wasn’t supposed to care about the why…Aaron said as much when he barreled in. But Robert couldn’t stop it, and he rolled back over to his back and stared at the ceiling. 

He was supposed to want to make their boundaries have sharper edges, not blurrier ones but he felt blurry in the moment, and he liked it. He turned back and looked at Aaron’s face. He looked peaceful, and he huffed out a quiet laugh as Aaron snored lightly. He was in a deep sleep, and there was something in his face that told Robert he needed it. He’d needed their fucking… Robert felt it in his bones. 

And he was worrying about why again…

“Stop…” he whispered to himself, but he stared at Aaron until his body stopped throbbing with adrenaline and his breath got more and more even and fell into a deep sleep himself. 

~~~

Aaron woke up to freckles, and it made him swear under his breath. Then he swore again when he didn’t immediately look away. He chewed on his lip and started to move, but his whole body ached. He groaned at it, but it felt right, it was what he’d wanted. To feel it for the rest of the day. He felt rested, which was something that hadn’t been happening for days now. It was gray in Robert’s bedroom, which meant it was already more morning than night. 

He needed to leave, but he found it hard to look away from Robert. He tried not to admit it, but he was the fittest bloke he’d ever seen. It was dangerous to think he thought and he really shouldn’t because this was casual. He felt the lie of it, but the truth was it was for Robert. He probably hadn’t even noticed Aaron avoiding him and putting distance between them. 

It was a good thing, he decided, but he chewed his lip and fought against counting freckles. Was it a fetish? Was that was it was? He hadn’t known about it, but how do you know everything you might be drawn too? Aaron shook his head and moved — loving the ache he felt at it, and he managed to roll on to his back. 

And a hand flung itself over his stomach. He froze and looked toward Robert, he as stretching toward Aaron and his forehead hit Aaron’s shoulder. Aaron held his breath and shook his head slightly. It meant nothing. He knew it, and he was happy about it. He wasn’t about to stay, it was time to go… 

He remembered they needed to talk, that he needed Robert to understand that there were lines they couldn’t cross — that it was only a mutually beneficial sexual relationship. He couldn’t give Robert more, and he didn’t want to give Robert more. He knew Robert felt the same way, but it just felt like it needed to be restated. 

Should he wake him up?

He glanced at him again, and he looked — amazing — and peaceful. He looked young, and kind of boyish, and Aaron felt himself smiling, and he sighed and wished he was a just a little bit less attracted him. He wouldn’t wake him up — he could leave a note he thought. 

He’d leave a note. 

Carefully he reached forward and grabbed Robert’s wrist and tried to lift his arm upward. But the touch made Robert burrow further into him and tightening his arm around Aaron’s body. Aaron rolled his eyes and tried again, and Robert muttered something unintelligible, and his eyes blinked open. 

Aaron fell right into them, and he tried to force a smile that for some reason he didn’t feel. He felt caught but at what he wasn’t sure… “I gotta go,” he mumbled. 

“Okay…” Robert murmured sleepily, but he didn’t loosen his hold. 

“Robert…”

“Hmm…”

“Let go.”

Robert’s eyes opened again, and he stared at Aaron for a full minute before they blinked and became more alert. He seemed to realize he was burrowed in against him then and moved back a bit, lifting his arm and avoided eye contact. “Sorry.”

“It’s alright.”

Robert nodded.

Aaron forced himself out of the bed, and looking around revealed none of his clothes made it to the bedroom. When he looked up, he caught Robert staring at him, mouth parted and want evident etched in his expression, shining in his eyes and made Aaron’s eyes duck down. “I’m gonna..”

“Yeah, alright.”

“Uh…thank…” Aaron felt like an idiot. 

Robert snorted. “Wasn’t a hardship.”

Relief flooded him, and he laughed. 

“Look, we need to talk,” they said in unison. 

Both of them laughed. 

“Come over tonight, after ten — I’ve got work to catch up on.”

“Be working on my car, anyway…” Aaron said. “Ten’s good.”

“Car, huh?”

“Yeah… uh, that was a good idea you had, worked out.”

“Great, great…” 

“So…”

“Yeah, you better go before I pounce on ya…” Robert smirked. 

Aaron blushed and turned away and finally made out of the bedroom. 

~~~

A bit after eleven o’clock, Aaron found himself leaning against Robert’s kitchen counter drinking a beer and watching Robert type something into his computer. He allowed himself to stare because it was ridiculous, really. Robert’s tongue was sticking out of his mouth a bit, and he intensely focused on whatever he was doing. It made Aaron chuckle.

“What?” Robert looked up. 

“Just never met someone so into work before.”

“Nothing wrong with a bit of ambition.”

“Guess not… if you got the brains for it,” Aaron shrugged.

Robert looked at him oddly. 

“Obviously you do…” Aaron added. 

“I work at it, really… Do my homework.”

“You were an overachiever at school, weren’t ya?”

“Not really… I had to work on the farm.”

Aaron nodded, but the truth was he kept forgetting Robert was from Emmerdale. That he was a Sugden and that meant he grew up on a farm like Adam. He was so different, he wasn’t like anyone in the village at all. It felt weird to think they were from the same small world that was Emmerdale. 

“Anyway, done for now…” Robert muttered and closed his laptop. 

Aaron nodded and handed him the beer that was the counter by his elbow.

He stood up and grabbed it, then indicated his couch. “Sit?”

“Kind of comfortable here,” Aaron said. 

“Suit yourself…” Robert moved to sit on the edge of his kitchen table. It put him lower than Aaron, and he found he liked looking down at him. His face was fit from any angle. That made Aaron chew on his lip because he’d never found an attraction to someone as irritating as it was with Robert. 

“So, uh… You wanted to talk?” Robert said. 

“You did too.”

“Yeah, but you first,” Robert said.

“Why’s that?”

“You're the guest and all.”

Aaron rolled his eyes. 

“Well?” Robert prompted after a minute of staring. 

Aaron cleared his throat. “I, uh… so this deal of ours.”

“Yeah?”

“Think… we just need to restate its limits.”

“Limits?”

“Yeah.”

Robert nodded. “Yeah, was thinking the same thing.”

“You were?” Aaron was surprised.

“Just a bit… just um…” Robert shook his head. “Like you pointed out, I like my career, and I need to be focusing on it right now. Why I don’t want to date, takes up all this time and you aren’t even sure it’ll lead anywhere.” 

Aaron nodded.

“So… I don’t mean this to sound harsh, but you’re convenient…”

It hurt, and Aaron fought not to show it because he didn’t want to feel it. Because it was true, it was practical. This was supposed to be about convenience when he thought about it. 

“And fit… and pretty great in bed,” Robert continued.

“You’re not that bad, either…” Aaron said. “And I agree.”

Robert stared at him for a bit, then nodded. “Yeah?”

“Yeah… I mean it’s not that I don’t want to date. I do, and all, and am…” it didn’t matter his last pull turned into a failure. “But I’m working a lot right now, not that I want to, not like you but fixing up the car and all. So, yeah, if I need too… let go, it’s nice you’re just across the hall.”

Robert nodded. “Yeah, right… like last night?”

Aaron blushed and looked away. He knew he’d been intense last night, maybe too intense but he’d needed to not think and yeah… Robert was his best bet for making that happen. “Yeah.”

“Good, good…” Robert nodded. 

“So same page?”

“Same page.”

They stared at each other again. 

Robert stood up and crowded into Aaron’s space. Aaron bit his lip and found himself looking up at him again — and maybe he did like that more. He dropped his beer onto the counter and plucked Robert’s out of his hands. 

“So we’re both here,” Robert said his voice dangerously low.

Aaron nodded. Then they were kissing, and Aaron moaned into it and told himself eventually it would stop making his insides move and his toes curl.


	15. Yeah That Talk Meant Nothing

 It was one in the morning when Aaron walked into his flat, a bit buzzed on a beer and full from street food. He’d gone on the pull and it’ been almost a complete waste of time. The good part was he bumped into a few friends his Bar West days in Hotten and had a good catch up on their lives. The bad news was he hadn’t met anyone he felt remotely interested in.  

“Again?” Adam muttered from the couch.

“Again, what?” Aaron muttered as he went to the sink to get some water. 

“You’re here instead of sleeping in some bloke’s bed.”

Aaron rolled his eyes and turned toward the couch. “Your interest in my sex life is getting boring.”

“I’m just saying.. You didn’t talk to one guy?”

“I talked to a few but ran into some old mates and spent most the night with them.”

“None of them good enough either?”

“They’re a couple, Adam.”

Adam sighed. 

“What’s your problem?”

“You’re going out, but you’re not pulling...but if he calls you’re out like a shot to see him.”

“Huh?”

“Sugden.”

“What about him?”

“Tell me the few blokes you talked to weren’t fitter or more interesting than him.” 

Aaron huffed and rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t comparing mate.”

“You sure?”

“Ads, what do you want from me? To just sleep with the first bloke to smile at me.”

“Isn’t’ that what happened with Sugden?”

Aaron shook his head. “I just wasn’t feeling it, and I don’t pull if I’m not feeling something. It’s not complicated, and I had a good night out. Not every time you go out has to end with sex.”

Adam shrugged. 

Aaron finished his water and started to head for his room. 

“Sugden knocked on the door around 11.”

Aaron stopped still. 

“Seemed right disappointed you were out…”

“What did you tell him?” 

“The truth. You went out to pull.”

Aaron felt uneasy and tried to push it aside because it was ridiculous. Robert and he weren’t together, and both of them were free agents. There was no reason to feel like he’d done something wrong. He tried to shove it away but worried his lower lip.  

“He was right weird about it,” Adam said. 

“Meaning?”

“Don’t know, he was just weird. Kept muttering that’s fair and good, good and mumbled an apology for bugging me.”  

Aaron bit his lip harder.  

“Kind of slammed his door when he went back to his flat.”

“So?”

Adam shook his head. “Just letting you know, told him I’d tell you he stopped by.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever… I’ll text him tomorrow, or whenever…” Aaron turned and stalked into his room. He threw his phone on his bed and started to undress. But only got his jumper off before he was picking up his phone and checking his texts. 

There was nothing from Robert.

There hadn’t been in the last week, and he frowned at the thought. His texts were stupid at best but Aaron had gotten used to them. He’d knocked though, and it’d been almost a week now since they’d last seen each other. Aaron chewed on his lip and started typing out a message.  

Aaron: _Still up_

He threw his phone back on his bed, kicked off his shoes, and started to pull off his jeans. His phone vibrated on the bed by the time he’d shucked them off, and he picked it up.  

Robert: _Yeah…doing research on a textile company._

Aaron: _You really know how to have fun on a Saturday._

Robert: _Did you do better than me on that front?_

Aaron: _Home aren’t I?_

Robert: _Come over?_

He shouldn’t, he thought but he wasn’t tired, and it’d been a while — and he had struck out when it came to pulling. None of the men he’d chatted with really clicked with him. He and Robert’s deal was pretty straight forward, when things didn’t work for him, he could go across the hall… 

Adam wouldn’t be able to stop himself from shouting after him though, and Aaron sighed at the thought. He wasn’t sure what it was that was up Adam’s arse about him and Robert. Maybe it was just because he didn’t like Robert, seemed to think he was twat and womanizer. Was always bringing up the woman but truth was Aaron never seen one go into his flat — not that he didn’t believe his friend. But he was pretty sure Robert was burying himself into work rather than trying to meet or date anyone, of any gender, and what did it matter to Aaron for he did. His phone vibrated in his hand. 

Robert: _Yeah, it’s late never mind._

Aaron sighed and quickly typed.  _Let me just shower first, bar was crowded and all…_

Robert: _I’ll unlock the door._

~~~

He twisted his lock to open and took a step back from the door and tried not to yawn. He’d been buried in paperwork and researching companies to try to sell to for the entire day, but he was feeling insecure about it all because one of his bossed gotten on his case about all the overtime he was doing and mentioned all the time off he could take that he wasn’t using. It felt like his attempts to impress weren’t being seen, and it had the effect of making him want to try harder while wondering if it’d even be noticed — if he’d be noticed.  

He was tired, and he felt antsy. He hadn’t left his flat since he got home Friday and he wondered if it was all worth putting his social life on hold. At least there was Aaron, though they hadn’t seen much of each other in the past week. Because he’d been burying himself in extra work and he was assuming Aaron was finishing up his new car.  

He stared at the door and wondered if he really should have invited Aaron over? But he was antsy, and he felt out of sorts, which was why earlier he’d knocked on Aaron’s door and hoped he was home. Seeing Adam had been a disappointment. Robert assumed for both of them because Adam seemed to relish telling him that Aaron was out on the pull. 

Like he cared. Aaron was allowed to do what he wanted. It was good, it was fine. It was…frustrating, but only because Robert needed an outlet right now for all the bad energy rushing under his skin. He felt insecure and unsure — and his boss wanted him to cut down on the overtime instead of seeing his ambition. He wasn’t upset Aaron was pulling, he was just a bit annoyed he hadn’t been around to help Robert empty his head for a bit. 

Which was why he was wondering why he was second-guessing inviting him over now — he obviously hadn’t pulled, and if he’d been looking, he must be needing the stress relief too. And that was the deal, Robert reminded himself, and he walked over to his kitchen sink and turned on the cold water. His eyes felt a bit strained from sitting at his laptop for hours, and he probably looked a mess. He splashed cold water on his face and decided to pour himself a glass of wine for while he waited for Aaron. 

Soon he was sitting on his couch and sipping on wine. He slouched down and spread his legs open and leaned back. Took a few more generous sips and ended up closing his eyes.  

~~~

“You’re joking me….” Adam nearly shouted as Aaron walked past the couch and to the door. 

Aaron shrugged. “Didn’t pull did I and he’s interested.”

Adam shook his head. “He’s why you didn’t pull.”

He scoffed.

“I’m serious, mate.”

“Ads, just do one,” Aaron rolled his eyes because it wasn’t true. He hadn’t pulled because there had been no click. It wasn’t because of Robert, how could that be on Robert? Aaron shook his head and walked out of his flat and into Robert’s and stopped still. 

Robert was snoring lightly, head tipped back and slouched down on his couch with a glass of wine precariously held in his hand. Aaron winced, worried about the wine ruining Robert’s clothes and couch, so he walked quickly over and started to lift it out of Robert’ hands.

He jolted awake, and Aaron nearly dropped the glass. But he managed not too and set it down on the coffee table and gave Robert an apologetic smile. 

“Shit,” Robert scrubbed his face with his hands. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

“It’s alright, some other night…” Aaron shrugged and turned to go because Robert looked knackered.

But a hand wrapped around his wrist. “Don’t go,” Robert said. 

Aaron let himself get tugged into him, and he ended up straddling Robert’s thighs and sitting on his lap. Robert put a hand behind his neck and his other hand pressed against his jawline a thumb following the grain of his scruff. He tipped his head into it and sighed. 

Robert smiled and stared up at him. “This is better,” he muttered.

“Than?” Aaron asked. 

“Everything,” Robert shook his head. 

“You look tired.”

“Cheers, you look… great, actually.” Robert laughed. 

Aaron grinned but looked away. His hair was a messy mass of damp curls, and he was in nothing by a white shirt and boxers. He hardly looked like anything.  

“You do,” Robert repeated. 

“One of us should,” Aaron muttered. 

“Funny,” Robert laughed, and he pressed on Aaron’s neck, leading him to bend down. 

Aaron smiled as they kissed and felt his inside flip when Robert moved them and his back hit the cushions of the sofa, and now Robert was over him, a thigh between Aaron’s legs and an arm propping him up enough to not crush him. He pressed kisses on Aaron’s jaw and neck before their mouths let again. Aaron kissing him and starting to tug buttons undone on his shirt. Robert rocked sighed, and his forehead dropped against Aaron’s, and their eyes met. 

“I missed this,” Robert murmured before kissing him again. 

Aaron felt himself nodding in agreement as he opened his mouth to him. 

~~~

He wasn’t awake, but he wasn’t asleep. All Robert knew was he was breathing in Aaron scent, his nose was smooshed against the back of his neck, and he liked the sold press of his body against him. It felt comfortable and right, and he wasn’t awake enough to question it… instead, he just kept his eyes closed and listened to the two of them breathing. Until he felt Aaron move and his arms tighten around him to keep him place and sleepily slurred, “Don’t go yet…”

Aaron sagged into him, and Robert felt relief. 

“It’s getting grey,” Aaron muttered.

“Then it’s too early for you to go.”

“Working on the car, today…”

“It’s Sunday you have all day…” Robert muttered.

“Don’t you have paperwork to do?”

“Yeah, but… rather do you,” Robert kissed the back of his neck. 

Aaron groaned and turned around in his arms. Robert shifted, and their legs tangled together, and he ran a hand through Aaron’s hair. “Robert?”

“Stay…” Robert whispered and kissed his mouth softly. 

“Yeah..alright,” Aaron mumbled.

Robert grinned, brushed his lips against the corner of Aaron’s mouth and buried his face into his shoulder. Aaron tightened his hold around them, and they shifted together into the bed. Hands softly touching and lips meeting now and again but neither was in much of a hurry, and they ended up falling asleep. 


	16. Kept Waiting

Robert grabbed his arse and pressed them more firmly as he deepened their kiss, causing Aaron to move onto his toes and grab Robert's upper arms harder. There as a sound of whimper and Robert was pulling away, but Aaron continued to lean forward, bewildered that there were no lips against his own. 

“I have to go to work…” Robert said. 

"Right, yeah, same," Aaron laughed, but he tugged on Robert's arms. And he felt a bit light-headed when Robert's bottom fell between his own, and he sucked on it lightly before Robert pulled away again and pushed him slightly further away. 

“Seriously, I’ve got a meeting,” Robert shook his head. 

Aaron shrugged, but he couldn't stop his grin. 

Robert opened the door to his flat and ushered Aaron out, a hand on his lower back, and he turned around and walked back towards the elevator. "Tonight?"

Aaron nodded.

Robert grinned. 

Aaron licked his lips after he disappeared and turned to unlock the door to his own flat. He stopped short inside, seeing Adam standing in the kitchen because he expected him to have gone off to work without him. Adam looked him up and down and shook his head. 

“What?”

“Walks of shame usually don’t come with the fresh from the shower look, mate.” 

Aaron ran his hand through his hair, it was pretty damp still from the shower they’d shared but what did that matter. They’d been saving time that was all. “It’s just a shower.”

“Right… second night in a row that you’ve slept in.”

“It’s not sleeping in…” 

“Going on nine.”

“Why aren’t you at work?”

"Was waiting for you," Adam muttered. "Didn't factor in showering together. Which subsection of your deal includes that?"

“Do one. I’m going to get dressed.”

“Maybe you should start keeping some clothes there.”

Aaron slammed his door. 

~~~

“Late two days in a row, it’s some sort of miracle.” Leyla sat down on the corner of his desk. 

He yanked a file free from underneath her and logged into his computer. “So?”

“So, who is she? Please tell me it’s not another White Sister.”

“There are only two of them…” Robert frowned. 

“So, who is she?”

“There is no she,” Robert muttered. 

"Uh-huh, no way, Robert… You Mr. Ambition are not late two days in a row without it being about a woman."

“I think I should be offended here.”

“What, because I think you falling for woman has compromised your work ethic.”

“Falling? There is no falling…” Robert shook his head. “There isn’t even a woman,” he added again.

“Oh I saw that smile twitch up, you’ve got a missus.”

“Leyla, you have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Just hope she’s not like Chrissie, cause ouch,” she squeezed his shoulder. “That break up was epically awful.”

He winced because it was true, and it was the main reason he wasn't looking for a relationship. The last he wanted was another attempt at being serious and being with someone to blow up in his face. There were things he needed to work on first. Specifically, his career and secondly, his sexuality. 

Coming out to Victoria been amazing but he wasn’t going to fool himself that everyone would be as accepting and amazing as his little sister. That wasn’t how the world worked in his experience. He needed to get his head around it more before he told the world and felt like he could openly date a man. Which was why what he and Aaron were doing was perfect…

And maybe Aaron was spending a few more nights over than he used too, but it wasn't a big deal. It wasn't like he lived far away and they were making very good use of their time together. But they weren't in a relationship, and he shook his head again at Leyla's words… _falling_ , as if, they weren't like that all. 

~~~

Adam put a bacon sarnie down in front of him along with a coffee and gave him a bit of a smile. Aaron scowled at him and waved his hands. “What’s this?”

“Peace offering.”

“For what?” 

Adam sighed. “You’ve been given me the cold shoulder most of the day, mate.”

Aaron rolled his eyes and picked up the sarnie. 

“Just… mate. He’s bad news.”

Aaron stared at him. 

“I mean it, alright… You’ve heard the gossip.”

“Heard it doesn’t mean I listened to it.”

“He slept around with Andy’s wife… I heard he’s even slept with Nicola King. He’s never been faithful.”

“So?” Aaron shrugged. 

"He uses people, he wasn't with Katie because of her, it was all about one-upping Andy — rumor says their fighting is what caused Max King to die…"

“Rumors? Heard of…” Aaron rolled his eyes. 

“He’s bad noise.”

“When was all this, like a decade ago,” Aaron asked. “Seem to recall you cheating on all your girlfriends too.”

Adam sputtered. 

Aaron shrugged. “Just case in point, mate… and it doesn’t matter anyway cause I’m sleeping with him not marrying him.”

“Aaron… just come on what do you two even have common?”

Aaron blinked. "Did not hear one word I just said... We're not dating."

“Tell that to the fancy soap smell wafting off of you… You’re getting in deep, mate, and you don’t even see it. I don’t like him.”

“Well it ain’t about ya, is it.” Aaron got up and stalked away. 

“Aaron…maate…” Adam called after him.

Aaron ignored him and started walking back to the garage. 

~~~

Leyla perched herself on his desk again, crossed her arms, and stared at him.

He continued punching data into his computer about his latest sales numbers. 

“Ahem..” Leyla cleared her throat. 

“There is no woman,” he muttered.

“Please… then why are you late?”

Robert rolled his eyes. 

“Nothing, not one lie, so unlike you.”

"Leyla, look at me. There is no woman. I was just…late, the alarm didn't go off and traffic. Nothing here to add to the gossip mill."

She sighed. 

He glared at her. “I’m busy.”

“It’s lunch hour.”

“I was late…” he shrugged and looked back at the screen. 

“Rude…” she muttered and hopped off his desk. 

Robert rolled his eyes and muttered, “Me?”

He sighed as he finished up the file and opened a second one. He was hungry, but he couldn't afford lunch if he wanted to make up for the lost hour of time. He shook his head though unable to regret it — the morning sex with Aaron been epic and the shower had been even better. There was no regretting it, even if it meant his stomach be rumbling by the time he got home. Now and again it did pay to be late, and great sex definitely fell into the category. 

Leyla didn’t need to know it, though. 

~~~

Robert was finishing up his dishes when he heard the door open behind him, and despite knowing it was Aaron, he glanced behind him to see. "You're early?"

“Adam’s annoying me.”

“He seems rather annoying in general.”

“He doesn’t like you either.”

"I never said that... Let me guess Emmerdale gossip mill?"

“Something like that and all the women he’s apparently seen in and out your door.”

“Whatever… like he never goes out on the pull and brings a woman home.”

“He’s been striking out a lot lately.”

“Then he’s just jealous of our deal,” Robert laughed. “Tell him to find a woman who can handle no strings.”

Aaron laughed.  
“I’m almost done, but help yourself to a beer, or whatever…” he said as he started scrubbing his wine glass. 

“What was for dinner?”

"Just pizza didn't have time for anything else…skipped lunch at work though so was starving."

"Yeah… I think I've got the car done and all. Just need to clear up the paperwork now and can start driving it."

“Really? That’s great… thought I saw a car though in one of your parking spaces.”

"Adam's a right copy cat but gets it done with the work… his stepfather — my uncle — sent him up a car, after he asked…my fixing one up gave him an argument that worked with his mum."

“Cain?”

“Yeah.”

Robert nodded. 

“You know… keep forgetting you’re from Emmerdale.”

“Good, I want to forget I am,” Robert said and turned to Aaron frowning at him. “What?”

“Nothing…”

“No?”

“Ain’t my business, but it’s not all that bad, Emmerdale.”

"Then, why are you here?"

"It's my mum… she gets…. We used to not get along at all, but now that we do, it's like she's making up for lost time, and she's always in my business or on my case. Since my last break up she just wants to set me up with…" Aaron shakes his head. "Nice guys and all, but they're never right for me. And I don't want a relationship right now… I want to breath and figure me out."

“You seem pretty figured out,” Robert said. 

“Not, though…”

“Yeah…me either.”

Aaron looked surprised.

Robert shrugged. “I’m not, trust me.”

Aaron nodded.

Robert drained his sink and rinsed off his hands. And crowed Aaron against the counter. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Aaron half-laughed and his hands lightly landed on his chest. “Before…”

Robert paid him no mind and started kissing at his neck and groaned when he smelled his own soap mixed up with Aaron’s scent. He licked at the skin and pressed his nose into it sniffing. His hands falling down to grab Aaron’s arse and pull him fully against him. 

“Robert…” Aaron sounded breathless.

Robert licked against the spot behind Aaron’s ear he knew made his knees buckle and grinned when it happened and tightened his hold on him. 

“Shit…I need…”

“Whatever you fucking want,” Robert spoke into his ear. 

“A shower.”

Robert frowned against that and inhaled Aaron’s skin again. “What, why?”

"Dirty and covered with grease still…" Aaron laughed. "Don't want to get those posh sheets of yours all dirty."

Robert pulled away and blinked at him. "Yeah, …we can shower."

Aaron stared at him and looked away. "You smell pretty clean to me."

“I am, I mean, I took one when I go in…” 

"I'll take a shower, and you can wait for me on the bed," Aaron said. "It'll be faster, you know… we get caught up in there."

“We do good things in there,” Robert smirked. 

Aaron laughed but pushed him. “Maybe I want to see you waiting for me on the bed.”

“Fine, we can do that but…” he grabbed him again and pressed his face into his neck and licked. “I think I like you a bit dirty, grease monkey.”

“Shut up…” Aaron laughed and pushed him away. 

~~~

Aaron showered quickly and told himself he hated Robert's posh soap and shampoo — he refused to use the conditioner. But there was something about the smell that was settling him, but he wasn't going to read into it. It was just fancier than the cheap, generic smelling stuff he bought — maybe his mum wasn't far off when she'd been an aromatherapy kick a few years ago. He shook his head because the last thing he wanted to be thinking about now was his mum.

It was easy to forget, though when he thought about Robert, out there waiting and possibly pouting at being put off. Aaron snickered a bit but blushed when he saw the baffled look on Robert's face when he mentioned he wanted to take a quick shower, alone, before they did anything. He half expected Robert to give more of an argument given the dazed and aroused look on his face when Aaron pushed him away. 

He could still feel Robert's face against his neck, his nose against his skin and lips and tongue following it. He knew exactly where to kiss and tease him, and if his arms hadn't been around him, Aaron knew he'd fallen to the floor from that alone. He shuddered and felt his cock move, and he took a moment to grab the base of it and shook his head. 

There was no reason to get ahead of himself. He and Robert had all night. He quickly finished up, grabbed one of Robert's ridiculously fluffy towels and rubbed his hair for a bit before drying himself off — probably too quickly, but he was hard, and he wanted the real feeling of Robert's mouth on his neck and not the echo of the memory. 

He dropped the towel on the floor and opened the door of the bathroom and nearly fell over. "Robert…" he breathed. 

“Yeah…thought I’d get ready for ya, that was the idea right?”

Aaron was sure his jaw was on the floor, and he couldn't use it, his mouth wasn't working at all, his brain was sputtering all he could do was stare because Robert was on his bed with three fingers inside himself and hard against his stomach. Aaron was pretty sure it was pure will not embarrass himself. He didn't just come right there because Robert looked gorgeous. 

“Aaron…” Robert said.

Aaron blinked and their eyes locked, and Robert moaned. Aaron groaned and felt himself moving, right onto the bed and over Robert. They kissed, and the moment Aaron knew Robert's hand slipped out of himself, he pushed himself straight inside him. 

“Fuck…” they swore in unison.

Aaron bit his lip and his head bent down against Robert's cheek, he thought, and Robert made a perfect noise as he rolled his hips and pulled Aaron deeper into himself and sighed. "Aaron, move…"

Aaron nodded, but he stayed still, afraid to move yet, he needed more control, and he shifted a bit and made himself met Robert's eyes. "Yeah…you need to be kept waiting more often," he muttered. 

Robert laughed.

Aaron felt grounded enough to move and know it would last and not end too soon.


	17. It Is Only One Night

_You should wake him...but you might scare him..._

Robert shifted slightly so he could look at Aaron more directly. They were tangled up in his bedding, sheets bunched around their middles, his comforter more on the floor the bed. It wasn't unusual, and something about that settled weirdly in Robert's chest. Aaron was snoring lightly, turned toward Robert with an arm slung over his stomach. He could feel the airs of Aaron's arm against his skin, and it tickled slightly, but his main focus was Aaron's face. It was a good face, and Robert swallowed and wondered when staring at it would get old? It was bound too, wasn't it? He knew it now, the straight angle of his nose, the pout of his mouth, the grain, and feel of his scruff -- nearly a beard at the moment. Robert liked it, and he sighed as he fought the urge to feel an arm so he could touch Aaron's face and feel the hair against his palm...

He didn't want to freak him out, and he wanted to know why it might -- but it was none of his business. It was an intimate question, and Robert knew it, so it was off the table. It would be just one more thing about Aaron he'd never know...

Not that that mattered. 

His alarm was going to go off soon, so he decided to wait for it and just enjoy the new few minutes of whatever this was with Aaron. It wasn't becoming a habit, at least he didn't think so... Aaron staying until his alarm went off only happened a few times, usually when they'd fallen into his bed late at night, in the hours that were the technically called morning -- usually. It wasn't a big deal, it really didn't go against anything in the deal, given how close their flats were -- it was two steps out of the door. If Aaron had farther to go, it'd be different, so this wasn't a line blurring, and he wasn't going to let himself feel weird about it. 

Or for staring. Because he liked Aaron's good face, it was a beautiful one, and Robert liked looking, and someday that would fade away or disappear -- because it always did from his past experience with any relationship. Not they were in a relationship but still... Attraction faded or became muted. It'd happen eventually with Aaron too...so he would savor it while it lasted. 

Aaron shifted closer to him, his hand traveling up from Robert's stomach to his chest, and his eyes blinked open. Robert blushed but couldn't look away, which meant he'd gotten caught staring. Aaron blinked lazily and then stroked his hand back down Robert's stomach, eyes tracking his progress before he looked at Robert. 

"That's creepy," he muttered.

"Yet, you're feeling me up," Robert laughed and placed his hand over Aaron's where it'd stopped low on his belly...he was itching to move it lower, but knew he couldn't because he was on the road for the day, meeting after meeting with clients on their home turf. 

Aaron shrugged and moved closer to him, and Robert readily accepted the sleepy kiss, wondering how morning breathe never felt like the issue it usually was... But Aaron's mouth was soft, and he knew just what to do with his tongue. He groaned both with arousal and irritation and pulled away. "I can't."

Aaron frowned. 

"Busy day and..." His alarm went off. "That."

Aaron moved onto his back and stared at the ceiling. "You should've woke me up."

"I didn't wanna scare ya," Robert said. 

Aaron winced and closed his eyes. 

"It's alright, just come over tonight."

"Can't... It's a mate birthday, Adam and I are taking him out, whole big thing."

"Oh..." Robert frowned. "When do you expect to get back?"

"Late, real late and I'll be drunk." 

Robert nodded. "Yeah, well, tomorrow?"

Aaron nodded. 

Robert told himself he wasn't disappointed and rolled out of bed. Aaron did the same. It was quiet as Robert gathered his suit for the day and Aaron found the clothes that'd made it into the bedroom with them. Aaron was then standing there in his boxers and a t-shirt and watching Robert decide on a tie -- he could feel his eyes on him. And he turned to look at him.

"Text me...you know, when you're bored in traffic."

Robert nodded.

"Alright..." Aaron said, and he turned around and left the room. 

Robert felt like they'd forgotten to do something, but what that was he wasn't at all sure. 

~~~

"What no shower?" Adam said the minute Aaron walked in the door.

"Sod off," Aaron mumbled and started to head toward his room.

"What, you wake up on the wrong side of his bed?"

"No," Aaron growled as he stepped into his room and slammed the door. He'd woken up to ocean eyes and stroking his hand up and down a pattern of freckles he'd wanted to trace with his tongue. He groaned and started stripping again, feeling stupid about it and out of sorts without being able to pinpoint why...

They went days sometimes without seeing each other, and they weren't dating or a couple. So what was one night, why was he feeling so pissy about it. Aaron threw his boxers into the hamper and frowned when they missed. It wasn't a bad thing, maybe, some space... 

Maybe he wanted to see Robert, and that wasn't really part of the deal. It wasn't about wanting the person, it was about the sex -- the really brilliant sex and well, he'd gotten used to starting his day well shagged if he passed out hard enough he and Robert woke up together. They usually didn't sleep up until his alarm, or he woke up first and would end up waking Robert up because he couldn't keep his hands to himself. 

But Robert had... Because he was afraid of upsetting him. It made Aaron feel restless that he was respecting that boundary despite it only being set once. His last relationship it'd taken a few times for it to get through and he shuddered a bit and wondered if that was a sign that trainwreck was never going to last -- could three months even count as a relationship, though? It was why he wasn't rushing into another one, all his life he'd just fallen into relationships, and he really didn't want to do that with his next boyfriend...

It wouldn't be Robert.

But Robert, who wasn't anything to him, was respecting his space. The village rumor mill, Adam, even his own mum -- she'd gone off on a rant when she heard they were neighbors... None of them knew Robert, at all, he wasn't the man they told awful stories about. In those stories, he sounded like a messed up kid... 

He'd told Aaron he was a mess, but Aaron didn't see that... Not at all. Maybe he was pretentious, a bit of a geek, a workaholic -- but Aaron admired his ambitious even if just listening to it made him feel tired. 

But no, he'd never date Robert. It would never work. He was too good for Robert anyway, he deserved someone ambitious and smart like him -- and he'd find eventually once he took his nose out of his laptop and decided to get out there again. 

But that wasn't going to happen soon, and Aaron knew he'd keep falling into bed with him as long as the sex was brilliant. And it showed no signs of stopping, which felt odd in a lot of ways but maybe that was the fun of good sex... Of being with someone, you fit within that way. Hopefully, it wasn't spoiling him, there were probably other people out there who could make his toes curl...

Couldn't possibly be a Robert Sugden only skillset. 

He was out of sorts because he wanted to enjoy that skillset first thing and because he had other plans there was no hope of seeing Robert tonight -- which wasn't a big deal. They went days, or nearly a whole week because it was a deal and nothing more.

He wasn't gonna miss him or anything. 

~~~

Robert: _I'm gonna die of starvation._

"Dramatic," Aaron muttered and opened the image attached to the text and saw a long line of cars ahead of Robert on the road. He shook his head and started to text out a reply...

"New boyfriend?" Ben, one of his co-workers asked.

"What, no..." Aaron scowled at him. 

"Oh. You're just smiling, so I wondered. Good news?"

Aaron stared at him. He wasn't...smiling. He shook his head. "Just a... Mate," he mumbled because what else could he say but he felt the world stick in his throat. Something about it feeling...right and it wasn't meant to was it. Because they weren't, right? 

He looked down at text he hadn't sent yet. 

Aaron: _Nah, you've got time to hop out, walk somewhere for food and back._

It was innocuous, of course, it was, all of Robert's texts were because he never said anything in them. It was random musings or dramatics about nothing. Aaron bit his lip and contemplated not sending his response, but it felt wrong. He was the one who told him to text, he wasn't going go all weird on him cause his co-worker thought he'd been smiling. 

He hadn't been.

He hit send and started back into the tune-up he was doing, at least until his phone vibrated in his pocket and read Robert's message. 

Robert: _Soon, you'll have your own car to sit in awful traffic in, and you won't mock my pain._

Aaron: _I'll always mock your pain._

Robert: _Idiot_

Aaron shook his head and laughed a bit, shoved the phone back in his pocket and went back to the engine. He needed to finish on time today if he and Adam were going to meet Rich and a few other friends out for Rich's birthday. The feeling of not wanting to go filled him up again but he shook it off. He couldn't skip a friend's birthday to go to Robert's... 

Robert was sex.

Rich was a mate. 

~~~

The pub they were at was loud, and Aaron's mates were just adding to it, but he wasn't paying any attention to the conversations. He'd already bought his round of pints and give Rich his well wishes. He knew he should have his bent in and be catching up with Rich and their other mates, it'd been a while since they'd all been out together. 

But he was bored, and the noise was doing his head in. He got up and made his way through the crowd and pushed outside and felt the nip in the air. It was late October, and he hadn't really dressed right for it. It was dark, and he wondered how late it was and look at his watch and sighed. It wasn't even midnight yet, and he was stuck here probably until the pub's closing time. 

It was the way it went. 

He leaned against the wall and breathed in the air and looked up at the sky. Not that he could see anything but black. In Emmerdale, it would be all stars, and he found himself missing it. 

His phone buzzed. 

Robert: _I just finished all the paperwork from the endless meetings I had today._

Aaron: _I care why?_

Robert: _Even I don't like working until nearly midnight._

Aaron: _Don't buy it._

Robert: _How's your mate?_

Aaron: _I need a few more pints, the noise was doing me. He's fine._

Robert: _If you need quiet, you know where you can find it._

Aaron chewed on his lip. He knew what he wanted to do, but he fought the urge. It wasn't right, and it felt like he'd be blurring lines again, and he wasn't sure it was a good idea at all to do it... 

"Aaron..." Rich stepped out. "You alright?"

Aaron shrugged. "Yeah, just needed some air."

"Anyone important?" Rich looked at his phone.

"Nah." Aaron ignored that felt like a lie. "No." 

His phone buzzed, and he nearly grabbed it.

"You sure?"

"Yeah..."

Rich nodded. "I think I'm getting too old for this, just want head home and curl up with my girlfriend. It sounds so... Adult."

"Things going well with you and Sue, then?"

"Great, great...I'm..." He smiled and pulled a box out of his pocket. "Been carrying this around for weeks trying to get up the nerve."

"Wow...mate, that's great," he patted his shoulder. 

"I know, I know... Scary though, but I don't know, she's the one."

Aaron nodded and wondered if he'd ever get something like that, he couldn't see it, though... It felt too normal, and he wasn't normal. Not at all. The idea of a lifetime with one other person -- the things he would have to share with them were terrifying. Wasn't the point the share yourself completely, let someone in on the things you keep buried. He thought about all the things he had buried and shook his head...

The thought of doing that felt foreign. 

He looked at Rich though as he put the ring back in his pocket and felt a bit envy though -- because it was a nice idea, he guessed. This being the first time he thought about it really for more than a second. "Really, I'm happy for ya, mate and she' crazy about ya."

"You think."

Aaron shrugged. 

Rich smiled.

Aaron's phone buzzed again, and he pulled it out and saw two messages from Robert and forgot Rich.

Robert: _Forget it, you're with your mates._

Robert: _There is a Lord of the Rings marathon is starting, I might not even sleep tonight._

"Geek," Aaron muttered. 

"Aaron, come on, who is that? You've met someone?"

"What? No..." He started at Rich, then chewed on his lip. "But, uh, I've gotta go, Rich. Sorry..." He walked off to flag down a taxi but did breathe out in relief when the driver he caught was a woman.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eep. Had to fix this chapter do to copy/paste issues due to distraction while editing, it won't start over in the middle and should have the CORRECT version of the last scene. #Headwall. Thank you @Some-mad-lunge


	18. Perfect

Robert was slumped down on his couch, long legs in front of him and spread out, wearing nothing but boxers and his hair damp against forehead from a quick shower. Lord of the Rings was playing on the television, and maybe he already knew it by heart, but there was something soothing about, and he felt unsettled. He couldn’t pinpoint the reason, but it was keeping him awake, and since it was Friday night, he decided not to try to fight it. Finding the movie marathon beginning felt serendipitous. 

The truth was the story reminded him of his mum — he wished she was alive to have seen the movies with him because she’d been the one to introduce to the books. A bit of sadness rolled through him, but it was more sweet than bitter. Sometimes he just needed to feel close to her again, and this worked, and maybe he wished he could talk to her. It felt like there was something he needed to sort out — but he wasn’t sure what it was at all. 

He glanced at his phone and felt stupid about his last three texts to Aaron. He picked it up just enough to peek at the screen, and there was no response. He never should have suggested he come over — he was with his mates, it was a friend’s birthday, and Robert was… 

Sex. 

He slumped further into his couch and tried to focus on the movie and ended up blushing a bit. Why had he mentioned the movie and wanting to stay up all night to watch it? He rolled his eyes at himself and wondered when the hell he started announcing he was a nerd. It was one of his carefully hidden secrets, and he sighed at himself. Sometimes though it felt things about himself that he wanted to keep hidden just slipped out around Aaron. 

He picked up the hot chocolate he made, another thing he and his mum used to when they watched movies together and told himself to just focus on the movie and the comfort of knowing the story. It would help him relax, it always did when he got wound up. Doing this was peace of mind — didn’t matter he wasn’t all that sure why he was antsy. 

He picked up his phone again and dropped it with a sigh, shook himself, took a sip of the hot chocolate, and nearly spilled all over himself when there was a pounding knock on his door. He frowned, set the mug down, and got up, trying to figure out who the hell would be knocking at this time of night. He looked through the peephole, and his eyes went wide at the sight of Aaron. Quickly he unlocked the door and opened it.

“Aaron?”

He brushed past him and walked inside. 

“Uh…” Robert closed the door and looked at him. “What are you doing here?”

“You invited me, didn’t ya?” Aaron said, but he looked unsure.

“Yeah, I mean, you’re kind of always invited but your mates… the birthday?”

“Gave my well wishes and all… the noise was doing me in.”

“Why?” Robert asked and wished he could take it back, that felt too personal. 

“Don’t know, does sometimes…” Aaron’s eyes went to the television. “You’re really watching that?” he smiled a bit and looked at Robert.

He blushed and moved to grab his remote to turn it off.

“Don’t turn it off on my account.”

“Aaron, you don’t want to watch Lord of the Rings.”

“No, but…” Aaron shifted on his feet. “I need to settle a bit.”

“Yeah, was kind of what I was doing… settling.”

“Yeah?” 

“Yeah…sit…” Robert walked into his kitchen and started to make more hot chocolate. He felt eyes on his back though, and glanced behind him. 

Aaron raised an eyebrow.

“It goes with the movies,” Robert mumbled. “My mum used to make us…just you know..sit down.”

Aaron bit his lip but nodded and went over to the couch. Robert watched him and shook his head. Soon enough, he walked back with two full mugs and handed Aaron one. Aaron took it and sat back and looked at the screen… “I have no idea what’s happening.”

“Do you care?”

“Not really… prefer action movies, or like Rocky.”

“Balboa?”

“Yeah, horror is good too.” 

“I like horror,” Robert said and sat back down. 

Aaron shifted until they sitting closer together and leaned against him.   
Robert felt weird but ended up moving his arm around Aaron’s shoulders, causing him to shuffle even more into Robert. It made Robert very aware he was half undressed, and Aaron was fully clothed, yet it didn’t bother him. It felt comfortable somehow, and he fell into watching the movie. Or tried too anyway, his thumb started moving against Aaron’s shoulder, and one of Aaron’s hands landed on his thigh and followed suit.

He turned toward Aaron to find him doing the same, and their mouths met, and there were two soft sighs as they kissed, soft at first and unhurried, just lips brushing and melding together perfectly. Robert sighed again and licked at Aaron’s lower lip, and then their tongues slid together, and Aaron made a noise and was climbing onto Robert’s lap. 

Robert grabbed at Aaron’s hoodie, cursing its bulkiness, making Aaron laugh as he moved away only enough for Robert to get it over his head, along with the shirt he wore underneath. Then they were kissing again, but Robert was able to run his hands up Aaron’s ribs and feel the lean the muscle there. He pressed up and forward, their chests knocking together. Aaron pressed into him, pushing him further into the couch. 

“Aaron..” Robert rocked his hips up, needing friction, he almost felt too hard, and he wanted him, it felt like he wanted Aaron more and more every time they did this.

“Hmm…”

“I need you,” Robert whined and rocked his hips again. 

“Yeah…me too,” Aaron said but moved to his feet. 

Robert glared at him, arms grabbing Aaron by his belt buckle. “Where do you think you’re going.”

“Down,” Aaron said his eyes heavy-lidded and staring right at where Robert’s cock was straining against the fabric. He dropped down to his knees and leaned forward and mouthed at it through the fabric. 

“Aaron…” Robert whined and hands fell into his hair.

Aaron kept mouth against him, and Robert's eyes rolled back, and he whined over and over again for more. Aaron laughed against him, and the vibrations almost did Robert in. “Fuck, Aaron I need your mouth...please.”

“Alright…” Aaron grabbed onto his boxers and yanked, Robert rolling his hips up to help, and the air felt cold against his cock and his stomach, he felt so hot and aching. 

Aaron's hand closed around his cock, rough callouses feeling perfect as he stroked up and down, just the way Robert liked it, and he knew no one else ever learned his body so well. 

“You’re perfect,” he breathed out without noticing. 

Aaron wrapped his mouth around the head of his cock, and he nearly jumped off the couch, Aaron’s hand slammed on his hips to stop Robert from choking him and laughed around his cock. 

“Shit…” Robert groaned and tugged at Aaron’s hair. 

Aaron kept his hands on Robert’s hips and started to swallow him up and down, moaning around Robert as he took him in further and further. Robert tried to rock his hips up to far or hard, Aaron’s hand helped, and he loved the strength and the pressure pushing him down. 

“Aaron…I’m gonna…” 

Aaron quickened his pace and swallowed him deeper. 

Robert felt like he was floating seconds later and his vision went blurry for a moment and when the focused he saw Aaron stepping out of his pants and boxers and looking down at him with lust blown eyes. Robert surged forward, grabbed his hips, and took Aaron’s cock right into his mouth. 

“Shit, Rob…”

He swallowed him up and down until there was a sharp tug on his hair and he looked up. 

“Stop.”

He pulled back and away.

Aaron stared at him then looked away, almost like he was surprised Robert had listened. “Stay,” he said and walked toward the bedroom, Robert watched him and fought down the itch to follow him, feeling impatient for what was coming next. 

~~~

Aaron woke up with his nose pressed against Robert’s neck, wrapped up in his arms and tucked right against his body like he fit there perfectly. They were on Robert’s couch and the night before flashed back to him and he flushed because of it —and wondered how the hell it’d felt like the first time they’d been together. Because every move Robert made been tailored made to please him, and he knew that was familiarity. 

He breathed in and chose to push that thought to the back of his mind. Instead, he let himself just focus on the moment. He could feel himself rising up a bit with every breath Robert took, and he was breathing Robert’s clean scent and in front of his eyes were a spray of freckles over his chest. Aaron knew the patterns on Robert’s cheeks and nose, almost perfectly, but this was new territory and found himself making abstract patterns with his eyes. Then his hand trailed up from, and his fingers started to trace them. Until he felt Robert move underneath him and he looked up into his eyes and thought they always looked darker when he first woke up. 

“And you called me creepy,” Robert huffed. 

Aaron shrugged. 

Neith of them moved. 

“Have plans today?” Robert asked after a while.

“No.”

“Good.”


	19. One Step Back

November

Adam was in the hall when Aaron stepped out of Robert's flat for the first time in two days. He cringed when he saw him, and Adam's eyes widened, but then his face fell, eyes rolled, and he turned away from Aaron to unlock the door.

He chewed his lip as he followed him inside and started to head for his bedroom for a change of clothes. He was perfectly clean, of course, he and Robert been quite thorough in the shower. 

"Unbelievable," Adam muttered.

"It's not a big deal."

"You've been there all weekend, you took off on Rich's party."

"He understood."

"Yeah, he wanted to know who the secret boyfriend was," Adam muttered. 

Aaron rolled his eyes. 

"The weekend, Aaron? Isn't that some blurring of the lines."

"No."

"No?"

"No."

"Wow," Adam shook his head. "I give up. I'm done."

"'Bout time," Aaron muttered. "I'm gonna go change," he turned for his bedroom again, but there was a knock on the door. 

Adam was closer to he opened it, saw Robert and shut it right in his face and stalked into his bedroom. Aaron rolled his eyes and opened the door, head shaking. "Ignore him."

"Yeah, alright..." Robert held out Aaron's phone. 

"Oh," Aaron took it. 

"Yeah, uh .. Thought you might need it."

"Yeah."

Robert sighed. 

"What?"

"Um," Robert scratched the back of his neck. "Just was... A weekend too much?"

Aaron frowned. 

"I don't regret it, don't get me wrong, but..."

"Boundaries?"

"Yeah."

Aaron nodded. "Maybe, I guess."

Robert nodded. "I mean as long as we're on the same page about what this is...guess it doesn't matter?"

"Yeah, and we're on the same page..."

"Casual." They said in unison. Both of them smiled, and Robert nodded again. "Anyway, I have a busy work week ahead, so I've gotta go back to the paperwork." 

"Yeah... I'm gonna just kick back and catch up with Ads," Aaron lied. 

"Alright..." Robert stared at him for a beat then turned around, though he looked back right before going into his flat and caught Aaron watching. Aaron blushed at being caught out and quickly closed the door. 

"See."

He jolted not expecting Adam to be in the kitchen. "What?"

"He doesn't give a fig about you."

"Huh?"

"It blurred the bloody lines, Aaron. He's just using ya."

"I'm using him too," Aaron muttered. 

"Right, then why did you lie."

"About?"

"You have no plans to catch up with me."

"Maybe I was gonna ask."

"Why are you so into him?"

"I'm not into him... I'm fucking him, Ads." 

"Think that would've worn out its welcome by now."

Aaron chewed on his lip because he kept wondering that himself. Because if anything, it was just getting better and better. He didn't foresee getting bored sex with Robert -- ever, really. Which could become a problem he reckoned -- maybe -- could brilliant sex be a problem? But it could, he reckoned, but that was in the future and not right now. 

"He's that good in the sack?"

Aaron shrugged and avoided looking at Adam.

"Maate..." 

"Will you just keep your nose out, already. It's fine. I know what I'm doing, and he and I can't hurt each other because we're on the same page. It's all casual. It was just a weekend, it's not like we do it all the time..."

Adam shook his head.

"After work, three times this week, we got out... Like we used too before you started up with him and I'll lay off alright. I just don't want you missing out something real while you all caught up in that..."

 

"Yeah, yeah, alright." Aaron nodded and smiled. 

Adam grinned and went back to whatever it was he was doing in the kitchen. 

He walked into his room, finally, and frowned. He was feeling all unsettled again and didn't like that he wasn't looking forward to hanging out with Adam -- even if neither of them pulled he always looked forward to the nights with his mate, maybe meeting other mates. He wasn't much for pub noise, but in the right company, he was usually okay with it and the crowds. 

He was supposed to be keeping his options open. Robert was meant to be just one option on the table. Not the only one and, maybe Adam had a bit of point. He was the only one Aaron was making time for -- didn't matter the sex was brilliant. If it was just sex...

He was young yet, he needed to play the field -- he wanted to play it. He reminded himself that after his first two doomed relationships all he wanted was to have some fun, not be too serious and maybe figure out some things about himself and what did, or didn't want from another man. 

Robert was... Robert was part of that, but he couldn't be the only piece of it. That wasn't keeping his options wide open, maybe even though it was on a deal, he was being too myopic about it all. 

But he needed Adam off his back and if going out a few nights during the week was the way to get that done he'd do it. And it could be for the best, it was why he'd gotten out of Emmerdale, and away from his mum's grip. So he could play the field and live his life on his own terms. Beholden to nobody. 

Maybe it would be a good idea to take a break from the deal with Robert. 

~~~

Robert frowned when another text went unanswered by Aaron. It made him shove his phone out of his sight. He needed to be focused on work anyway, it wasn't any skin off his nose if Aaron was busy. He had his own life, his own job and his twat of a roommate to deal with. He frowned at how Adam Barton just shut the door in his face. Usually, it would never bother him if someone hated him -- you couldn't charm everyone, though he usually could manage to charm harder ones if he really put his mind to it. Not that he would use that power on Adam. 

He thought over that conversation with Aaron and the more he thought on it, the more awkward it seemed. He'd felt awkward during, felt almost like there were things he wasn't saying to Aaron -- though he thought he was being perfectly clear about just setting the boundary lines. 

Or lack of...

It was a great weekend, but as Aaron got ready to leave, something heavy settled in Robert's chest as the thought of him leaving. He wasn't happy with the idea at all, and that made everything suddenly feel too intimate. Which given all the positions they'd been in over the weekend it seemed weird his feelings about Aaron leaving were what felt too close to...

Closeness.

His brain was knackered, and he realized he was paying no attention to what he was entering into the spreadsheet in front of him. He shook himself and went back to the beginning, checking he hadn't screwed anything up. It looked fine, at least he could count doing his job well with his closed as part of his skillset. He wondered how to word that resume... 

His phone chirped, and he grabbed it. He frowned it was only his sister. 

Vic: _Ellis and I are in Hotten. Was a bit of a surprise trip. Can you meet us after your done at work? I really want you to meet him, Rob. x_

Robert: _Yeah, just tell me where I'll clock out at 5 instead of 6._

Vic: _Wow, I'm worthy of missing an hour of work._

Robert: _Shut up._

__He put his phone down and stared at it. Aaron wasn't going to answer, and that was fine. It was fine. It was perfectly fine._ _

__~~~_ _

__The problem with Adam was he never shut up, and he'd gotten a woman's number, and he wouldn't shut up about her. As usual, he was sure he'd just met the love of his life -- which what he said every time he met someone. And it only ever lasted a month at the most for him. But he was always positive that this time it would last and Aaron just wondered how he didn't tire himself out expending so much energy on it._ _

__He'd talked to a guy too and gotten a number. But he was already having to remind himself of the guy's name by looking at the new contact in his phone. He stared at it and tried to remember what he looked like -- he'd been average, kind of fit. He'd known a lot about cars, and that was all they'd talk about -- Aaron going on about fixing his up and he just needed a part come in. But something been missing and Aaron knew he wasn't going to call him. He wasn't sure yet if he would answer if he called Aaron._ _

__He sighed and fiddled with his phone a bit, just to help him avoid listening to Adam go on about the new love of life. He kind of wondered if Adam even knew what love was..._ _

__He sure didn't._ _

__He looked at Robert's name and remembered there were two unanswered texts. He frowned at himself and told himself to stay true to his plan to just take a bit of a break. It was one thing for them to talk about setting the boundaries and being careful, but it would be best if one of them followed suit physically on it._ _

__Or maybe not._ _

__It wasn't like the texts were that big of a deal. Right?_ _

__He opened them. He just ignored them before, thinking it'd be easier to not answer messages if he didn't know what they were._ _

__Robert: _You ate all my pastries.__ _

__Aaron snickered because he'd finished off the fancy breakfast pastries Robert while he'd been taken a shower before he'd left to go home because he knew he and Adam had next to nothing in his refrigerator. He didn't regret it._ _

__Robert: _Which flavor did you like best... Since I have to stock up.__ _

__Aaron frowned at that... Why would he stock up on what Aaron likes? Just because he was over a lot? Maybe Adam was right, and he was over to often, but he shook his head. Robert wasn't the bad guy that village rumors and Adam kept making him out to be -- Aaron saw it, and it was clear. He was good at reember what people liked. Maybe it was why he was so good at his job, it was part of the charm he thought._ _

__Aaron sighed and texted back._ _

Aaron: _Apple._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not too thrilled with this chapter -- but headaches do that but I needed to get some writing in.


	20. Mates

He hated Lawrence White, and Lawrence White hated him, so Robert was surprised when his boss showed up and announce Lawrence was refusing to meet with Leyla and Robert was to go White Industries and the take the meeting. Leyla nearly swallowed her tongue at the news and shook her head, and Robert wanted to say no — he would never even consider it at any other time, but he definitely thought he should say no — it was just survival instinct. Only his boss was one of maybe only two people into the entire business complex that didn’t know Robert been with both White Sister’s and caught cheating red-handed by Chrissie. Luckily only Robert and now his sister knew it’d been with a man and not Rebecca, Chrissie’s ditzy sister. 

Robert often wondered what was wrong with and maybe the whole mess was more of why he’d taken himself off the dating scene, rather than wanting to just keep his nose to the grindstone. But as it went, Robert was handed the file and put back on as the person handling the White account. 

Leyla wasn’t unhappy, just shocked. “Not like I want to deal with that pretentious old fool, but why would he ask for you?”

“It won’t be anything good,” Robert muttered as he opened the file to catch up one what he missed out on. At least it’d been Leyla handling everything, he wouldn’t have to worry about someone having done a lousy job. Only, as he read everything he realized Lawrence probably thought Leyla was doing a lousy job — because well, he had a tendency to work harder than most people. 

He shook his head no way Lawrence was noticing he was good at his job. 

He groaned and got up, grabbing his coat because he was going to be late for the meeting if he didn’t get going soon. White Industries was a long trek, and he felt frustrated because it was going to take hours out of his day now. 

~~~  
“How did you end up with a better car than me…” Adam whined.

“Cause you asked Cain for a junker and I fixed this up,” Aaron laughed. 

“Work on cars all day, mate don’t want to in my spare time. I need a better job, really, something classier.”

Aaron snorted.

“I’m serious. My own business or something, it can’t be hard. Bill owns the garage he’s not all that smart, really.”

“Smarter than you — don’t you need to go to school for business or something?”

“It can’t be that hard.”

Aaron grinned when traffic cleared ahead of him and pressed his foot against the accelerator and grinned at Adam when the engine seemed to purr louder. He couldn’t help but feel proud of himself, the engine been making an odd clunking sound when he got it if he went too fast. But now it was driving perfectly, it almost felt like a new car and not a fixer-upper. This was definitely one the best decisions of his life, and he decided to drive all the way to a favorite restaurant for lunch that they rarely went to because it was too far away. 

He didn’t want to stop driving anytime soon. 

~~~

“Double whiskey,” Robert barked at the bartender and slipped onto the stool. 

“That bad?” the woman asked with a raised eyebrow.  
“Just poor will ya,” he said.

She nodded.

He clenched his jaw and tried to calm down, but it was a hard thing. Lawrence was pulling out of their company, but first, he wanted to put Robert through a song and dance first — bringing up the money Leyla lost them but not following up on a few of the extra things Robert always used to and putting the blame on Robert for just dropping the account. As if Lawrence didn’t know why he’d dropped the account, but Robert didn’t dare point that out…

Though it’d been the elephant in the room.

Robert tried charming him, he even tried flirting with him — which worked as a rule in the past, the old man clearly closeted and attracted to him. He shuddered at the thought of it, but the truth was the truth. Lawrence was a sad old man and he’d just given himself a thrill today but making sure Robert was going to looks squarely to blame for losing his company since a lucrative account. 

He groaned and wished he’d punched Lawrence when he took the white flag he dangled away with a petty laugh and told Robert he was going to ruin him for what he did to his daughters. He really couldn’t, Robert knew that, but he definitely could make his life harder at work. 

His bosses noticed his hard work, but they’d notice losing a high yield account even more. 

And it was really his own bloody fault. He grabbed the whiskey was it put in front of him downed it. “Another.”

~~~

“You coming in?” Adam said with a yawn. 

Aaron tore his eyes off of Robert’s door. 

Adam sighed when he realized where Aaron’s attention been and closed the door his face. Aaron supposed it was better than him yammering on about how much he hated Robert. He sighed and looked at his phone. He hadn’t had a text in days, and it was starting to bother him. 

He felt a bit buzzed about his car was in his parking spot, and he liked thought of the freedom and control it gave him. He wanted to celebrate, and he wanted to tell Robert. Because, well, he’d given him the idea hadn’t he… Aaron looked at the time, and it was pretty late, but Robert seemed to be a night owl. Or maybe it was just a side effect of him always working. 

He knocked on the door. 

Nothing. 

Aaron frowned and tried again, thinking there was no way Robert was asleep. Maybe he was in the shower? He knocked again, but the door remained closed, and he sighed. He turned to go back to his own flat when his phone rang. He looked at the number, worried it was mum — and if she called at this hour it wasn’t good news. But it was Robert’s number, and that was weird. 

“Robert?”

“Is that his name?” a woman said. 

“Uh, who is this?”

“Look, you seem to be the number he texts the most, and he had a fit when I threatened to call someone named Vic… but look he’s been drunk at this bar for hours, and I can’t deal with him anymore, and I rather call family than the cops.”

Aaron scowled. “What bar?”

“The Tilting Windmill.” 

“Yeah, I know where you are… I’m on my way.”

“Hurry,” she said and hung up. 

He stared at his phone, chewed at his bottom lip and shrugged. He couldn’t just leave Robert drunk at a bar and getting the police called on him. Good thing he had his car, though, that bar was miles off, and he didn’t have the money for kind of cab fare. He started toward the elevator when he realized something and groaned. Adam wasn’t going to like it, but he was coming with them. He wasn’t going to leave Robert without his Porsche. 

~~~

“You owe me,” Adam said in an ominous tone about an hour later as he opened the door to the flat again. 

“I know.”

“I’m serious…” Adam said, and he looked at Robert. “I say leave that mess on his couch and just come home.”

“Ads…” Aaron scowled.

Adam rolled his eyes and went inside. 

“He hates me… it’s the majority opinion though, innit…” Robert slurred.

Aaron frowned and unlocked Robert’s door with the keys he’d found in his pockets. “He doesn’t know ya.”

“You don’t know me, Aaron... You’d hate me if you did.”

Aaron shook his head and pulled Robert with him. He was all long and heavy limbs. “Just sit down, will ya.”

Robert slumped on his couch, angled in a way he nearly sank so far down he slipped off the cushions. “Shit, everything is spinning…”

“You gonna…” Aaron made a motion with hands.

“No…” Robert groaned. “No.”

Aaron hoped that was true and went to the kitchen. He quickly filled a glass with water and made it back to the couch and handed it to Robert, who nearly dropped until Aaron helped him remember how to hold a glass.

“You’re too nice,” Robert muttered.

Aaron rolled his eyes. 

“You are. You shouldn’t waste your time on me.” Robert sipped the water and made a face and put it down. He slumped back and looked up at the ceiling, sullen expression on his face. “I bring it on myself, you know, every time.”

Aaron sighed and wished he knew what to do or even understood what happened. “What’s this about, anyway?”

“Lost a client.”

“Is that all?”

Robert groaned and shook his head. “It’s…god, I slept with his daughter to try to get an in, I wanted to leave my company and work for him… and I just screwed it all up. And I’ve lost the client and now… now I won’t even be on the promotion list.”

“You what?” Aaron shook his head and ignored the weird stab in his belly about Robert being with some woman.

“I know I know…I’m horrible.”

“You’re not,” he argued. 

“I am… you’re, you way too good for me…” he reached out and patted Aaron’s thigh. 

“That’s not true.”

“Is… I use people, just using you, you’ll see.”

“Using too, though aren’t I?”

“It’s not the same,” Robert muttered.

“Seems so,” Aaron sighed and grabbed the water. “Drink more water, alright.”

“Room is spinning.”

“You drank a bottle of whiskey, of course, it is.”

Robert took the glass from him and drank down a longer sip of water, but then his head was back looking up at the ceiling his eyes closed, and he looked lost and young and broken. Aaron didn’t like it, and he leaned forward and pushed Robert’s hair off his forehead where it’d fallen. Robert’s eyes opened at the touch, and their eyes met. 

“How did you know where I was?”

“Bartender called me, said you didn’t want her calling Vic.”

Robert whined. “But why you?”

“Said you text my number a lot.”

“Oh…probably true,” he laughed. 

“You do have a texting problem…” Aaron bit his lip. “Except for the past week or so.”

“You seemed busy.”

“I was… was finishing the car.”

Robert blinked at him. “Wait, were we in your car?”

“Yeah, you were passed out most of the ride.”

“Shit, my car,” Robert sat up and winced. “Bad idea.”

Aaron laughed, and it got him a one-eyed glare from Robert. “Adam drove back here for ya, remember.”

“He must really love ya,” Robert said.

Aaron shrugged. 

Robert drank more of the water and whined as he slumped back down. “I can’t even blame Lawrence for canning us, for making sure it’d be my fault — I can’t at all.”

“Cause of what you did?”

“It’s what I always do…” Robert clenched his jaw and looked away. “I just use people, Aaron.”

Aaron shook his head.

“Don’t think I’m better than I am.”

“Maybe I don’t think it…” Aaron said. “Maybe I know it.”

Robert stared at him wide-eyed. “You don’t need to stay.”

“No, you’re too drunk, still… and what are mates for.”

“We’re mates?”

Aaron nodded. “Yeah, it’s not a bad thing, is it?”

“Not at all.”

“Good, drink more…” Aaron waved at the glass. “I’ll make you some eggs.”

Robert nodded with a strange expression on his face.


	21. It's Been Ages

It was the dull ache in his head that woke him up and then the bad taste in his mouth. Robert grimaced and had a vague memory of tearing a whiskey bottle out of some woman’s hand. He groaned and held his head as he tried to open his eyes. It took a bit, and his living room came slowly into focus, the sun through the kitchen windows a bit too bright. He looked around and stopped short when he found Aaron. Positioned like a pretzel in one his armchairs, breathing low and even, fast asleep. Another vague memory of Aaron helping him into a car and then another one giving him a glass of water. He looked around, and there the glass was on his coffee table and empty. He must have managed to drink it all, he looked around some more and felt relief when he saw no evidence he might have gotten sick. He felt it now though and rubbed his temples and questioned his life choices. 

He looked at Aaron again and wondered how he'd found him? How it was him that’d taken him home. Another vague memory of arguing with the woman behind the bar about not calling his sister. He groaned and tried to remember why he’d decided to get drunk in the first place…

Oh. Lawrence. 

He slumped back against his couch and looked at the ceiling. He would have to face that music today at work. Shit, work. He stood up, far too fast and sought out his stoves clock. Two hours until he needed to leave. Thank god, he thought because he was going to need it. He glanced at Aaron again and frowned…

He looked peaceful despite how contorted he was on the chair. Why had he stayed all night? Guilt made him flush with embarrassment, and he thought Aaron was really too good... Too good to even be near him and another vague memory appeared of him saying it out loud to Aaron’s face. He shook his head and decided not to bother him and walked toward his bedroom. He needed to brush his teeth, and he needed a shower — maybe then he wouldn’t feel death warmed over. 

~~~

The shower was short, and he tossed on a pair fresh boxer briefs and splashed cold water on his face at the sink. He felt hot and uncomfortable, the ache was still in his head. Though it served him right, and he couldn’t stand the sight of his face in the mirror. He should’ve known yesterday would turn out the way it had — why had he thought he could charm and flirt Lawrence after what he’d done. He was probably lucky a hitman wasn’t after him… 

He brushed his teeth. Twice. The groaned as he decided to go into the kitchen and make himself something to eat. Food sounded like a horrible idea, but he knew he’d regret more if he didn’t. He opened his fridge and pulled out the eggs and bacon. Usually, he ate fruit for breakfast, but today he needed something greasier. He glanced at Aaron and decided to make double the amount, and hoped the smell of it all would wake him up, so Robert didn’t have to risk scaring him. 

It was slow going, he tried to fry an uncracked egg instead of the bacon, then he broke all the yolks so ended up making scrambled instead of usual over easy. Then he couldn’t get the coffee maker to work because his dexterity was shit and he nearly spilled the first cup all over himself. He put his hands on the counter, bent his head down and sighed with relief once he had it all done…

And he looked at Aaron. How was he still fast asleep? He shook his head and tried to remember how Aaron had been the one to bring him home? But it wasn’t coming to mind. He put the plates on his table, and the coffee, and walked over, knowing he needed to wake him up before it all went cold. He sat on his coffee table, putting him right in front Aaron and found himself staring. 

He was beautiful, and he shook his head a bit. He usually tried to squelch that thought, keep it down and not too loud in his head. It wasn’t the type of word you used for your casual sexual encounter. But it was the truth as far as Robert could tell and he didn’t have the brainpower to fight it or to not just sit and look at Aaron for a second and appreciate what was clearly artwork. 

He groaned and wondered what the best way to wake him up would be? He didn’t want to shake his shoulder’s, but touching his knee felt too intimate for a man who didn’t like to be woken up physically. He bit his lip and decided to touch Aaron’s hand, which was on his thigh, but at least he wouldn’t be touching any part of him too intimately. 

“Aaron?” he tapped his hand. “Aaron?” It took a few more tries, but then Aaron was waking up. It was slow going because he winced and put a hand behind his neck and tried to move into a more comfortable position before his eyes even opened. Then Robert was looking into blue and smiling. “Hey.”

Aaron blinked and turned toward the kitchen. “You made breakfast?”

“Figure I owed ya, one,” Robert said. 

“Nah, it was nothing.”

“What was it exactly? Did I call you?”

Aaron looked at him. “Don’t remember?”

“A few things in a very vague and hazy way… think I was a right prick to the bartender.”

“Yeah, you were, but you gave her a great tip to make up for it,” Aaron laughed. 

“Great, great…” but Robert just shook his head. “Let’s eat, it’s getting cold.”

Aaron nodded. “So… don’t remember much.”

“No, probably for the best… Shit, my car.”

“It’s here. I took Adam with, to get ya, and he drove it back.”

“You let him drive my Porche?”

“Woulda rather I let you crash it?”

“Fine…” he grumbled and sat down. 

Aaron sat down and looked at the ketchup bottle that was near his plate and smiled a bit. “Bartender called me, she wanted rid.”

Robert downed his coffee and hoped it helped his head and tried not to feel guilty and ashamed, but it wasn’t working. “Not my best idea.”

“What happened?”

“Lost my company a client.”

“That’s all?”

Robert shook his head. “He’s a big client but… well, I slept with both his daughters, and it ended badly… He wanted my bosses to know it’s me that made him leave.” 

Aaron frowned.

“I know, I know, village gossip… Robert Sugden’s got form.”

“Yeah, well… you feel bad about it, don’t ya?”

“Yeah…yeah…” Robert felt the guilt churn. 

“And you break your back for that place, one client going can’t be that big of a deal.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“Of course I am,” Aaron grinned at him.

Robert laughed.

Aaron smiled wider, and Robert found himself staring at his mouth. 

They ate in silence. 

“Can, I use that extra toothbrush again?”

“May as well, it’s yours pretty much, innit?”

Aaron shrugged and went to the bathroom. 

Robert watched him, sighed, got up, and quickly rinsed off their dishes and left them in the sink. He needed more coffee, he thought as he yawned and turned toward the coffee maker. He was arguing with it again, when he felt hands on his hips and a mouth press against the back of his neck. He went loose and turned around. 

“That thing is too complicated, just get a real coffee maker.”

“I like espresso…” Robert muttered and pushed his hands underneath Aaron’s shirt. 

Aaron was rubbing up and down his arms and pressed a kiss to his mouth. “You mean you like being a pretentious twat.”

“You mean suave,” Robert pressed another kiss to his mouth. 

This time it deepened, and Robert started tugging on Aaron’s shirt. “You’re overdressed, Dingle.”

“Then do something about it,” Aaron muttered.

“Trying.” Robert got it over his head, but it caught on his chin, and both of them struggled with a bit until it came off. Then they were laughing, and Robert’s mouth fell onto Aaron’s neck. “I want you…it’s been ages, Aaron.”

~~~

“Robert, Robert….Rob…” He was muttering, and he was possibly not making sense at all, but Robert’s cock was sliding into him, and it hurt just on the side of too much, which meant it felt perfect. And it had really been too long since he felt this since he let Robert push him down and take control and he was too far gone with lust to really question the feeling that he could do this forever. 

“I’ve got you,” Robert’s voice was strained, and his lips hit Aaron’s temple. “Shit..give me a second.”

Aaron tightened his legs around Robert’s waist and shifted his hips. 

“Aaron…” Robert whined. “Do you want this over?”

“You can take it,” Aaron said, and he felt lips against his mouth, and he pushed his tongue against Robert’s. 

“Hmmm…” Robert hummed into his mouth. “I need this...” 

“Then do it.” Aaron groaned when he started thrusting and gripped onto his shoulder’s harder and pressed his mouth against his neck. He felt himself relax into it and shift so Robert drive even deeper into him, slamming against his prostate and making him bit down on Robert’s neck and relish the feeling of being pushed into the mattress. 

All the things that usually made him tense, making him feel amazing. The thought was quick and then lost as he just closed his eyes and let himself ride the pleasure that was coursing through every nerve ending he had and then Robert’s hand wrapped around his cock and all the pleasant buzz of pressure blew and he felt himself sink even deeper as Robert breathed heaving into his ear until he finally shuddered and collapsed onto of Aaron. 

Aaron wrapped his arms around him, wanting to keep the weight of him on top of him, not questioning it, just feeling it. He tightened his grip when Robert went to move and felt a huff of air in his ear. 

“I don’t wanna crush ya…”

Aaron just shook his head, he wanted Robert there, still, in him, he just wanted it for a few more minutes. “Stay, just a bit.”

“Hmmm,” Robert nodded, and his mouth found Aarons. 

It was a soft kiss, and Robert pulled his whole body away when he broke it, minutes later, and Aaron let him, but he felt his mouth pull into a pout and blushed at that and looked away. 

But Robert was getting rid of the condom, and he felt relieved he didn’t notice. He looked at the time and sighed and realized the morning was over and he didn’t like it. He stayed where he was though and watched Robert start to put together a suit for his day at work. Aaron watched as his freckled skin disappeared, and though Robert always looked fit in his suits, he missed his skin. He bit his lip and then averted his eyes for a second when Robert turned to look at him. 

“That’s unfair…” Robert muttered.

“What is?”

Robert sat on the edge of the bed and touched Aaron’s belly and ran his hand down to his hipbone. “You laying there, looking like that…”

Aaron shrugged. 

“Come over, tonight?”

“Yeah…yeah.”

Robert smiled. “You can take a shower and let yourself out, yeah?”

Aaron nodded.

Robert bent down and kissed him softly.

Aaron sighed when he was gone.


	22. The Wreath

December

He had a headache, a dull ache behind his temples and he wasn't sure if t was from the beer, his mum, or the Emmerdale gossip mill. He never should have let his mum talk him into driving his car down to the village so she could see it. It'd been a trap -- the Chas Dingle trap. He'd ended up with his cheeks pinched and her nattering in his ear for hours about all these nice lads she kept meeting and how she wanted to give them his number. He didn't want to be set up, especially by his mum, who wanted him to find a nice bloke and settle down. Just because his first two relationships had gotten serious fast didn't mean he wanted the next one too.

Thank god for Robert, he thought as he stepped off the elevator and tried not to yawn. His mum talked his ear off, and she'd stared in on his job too, about how he was better than just being some mechanic and maybe if he came home Cain would let him do more with the business than just fix cars. Like he wanted favors from his uncle... And he liked his job, he was good at it, and he didn't need to talk to the customers which was fine by him. He tried changing the subject more than once but it when finally did change it wasn't because he'd gotten a word in edgewise with his mum. It was because she'd heard her friend Katie Sugden ranting from across the pub.

About Robert.

Aaron frowned. The picture Katie painted wasn't pretty, it wasn't nice, and as far Aaron could tell it wasn't Robert At least it wasn't the man he knew, though all her stories were about a boy. Something that seemed lost on the village gossips as they decided he was the most terrible person to ever live in Emmerdale and poor Jack Sugden. Aaron almost run out, but his mum caught him and stopped listening to Katie and started in on him again about her nice lads -- and maybe she could just give one of them his number. It was either a banker or a doctor she wouldn't shut up about. Like he would have anything in common with any of them. He tried to leave, but as the only way to cope with his nagging mum was to keep drinking, he got too drunk...

And then Chas was beaming as he crashed in his old bedroom and she was talking about how he could always come home, no questions asked and it would be amazing to see his face during breakfast. Aaron sighed and felt relieved he wasn't going to be there. He woke up before the sun rose, sober enough to drive after he made some bad coffee in the kitchen and hurried out to his car. He couldn't deal with another hour of her chirping at him about maybe coming home. 

It took less than three hours for him to remember why he'd decided to move in with Adam. He rubbed his temples again and hurried toward his flat, though his eyes started to drift toward Robert's door -- he could hear Katie making him sound the devil incarnate who only cared about himself, and whatever woman he could charm the pants off of... She made him sound like a user and a womanizer. Aaron shook his head and looked at the door and came up short. 

There was a wreath on it. 

A green pine wreath with golden pinecones and a big red bow. 

He stared at it and started chuckling, he shook his head. Yeah, that was the Robert Sugden he knew, an idiot who actually got himself a wreath for the holiday season like he lived in some fancy building instead of the run-down building they lived in. Sure he kept his flat nicer than most of them, and maybe he could fool someone into thinking he had a better address than he did, but Robert lived in the same cheap building as him and Adam. But he liked to appear grander than he was, when really he was just a bit of a dork, really. 

"A wreath," Aaron shook his head. 

He walked over to it and touched it and felt disappointed it was fake before he caught himself. He rolled his eyes and told himself to turn around. But he looked at the time. It was the weekend, it was going on eight -- Robert's alarm no matter the day seemed to go off a bit after seven. Though there was the one time they slept through it until ten -- Robert cursing and hurrying to get dressed to work and blaming Aaron for tiring him out. Aaron grinned and muttered. "Old man," under his breath. 

He knocked on the door before he realized it. He looked down at his hand, still in a fist and sighed. Why had he gone and done that? But he didn't move in front of the door and waited for a beat. And a beat longer. Yeah, maybe he was asleep, and he wasn't about to start banging on the door wake him up. He hadn't even really meant to knock in the first place. He'd just wanted to see if the wreath was fake or real. 

He was about to turn away when the door opened, and a very sleepy Robert Sugden was staring at him. It was a sight Aaron had seen a million times now, nothing but boxers -- only this time the boxers were green and had mistletoe on the front, and it managed to distract him from the sea of freckles he was usually getting distracted by it wasn't Robert's chest muscles distracting him. He started laughing, he just couldn't help it. 

"What?" Robert started at him and followed Aaron's eye line. He looked down at his own crotch and turned pink. "They were cheap..."

"You bought cheap Christmas themed pants?"

"They came with..." Robert trailed off. "Aaron, what do you want, is the sun even up?"

"It is, watched it rise on the drive back."

"Back?"

"From Emmerdale," Aaron said and watched as Robert's expression darkened -- always did when Emmerdale was brought up and Aaron after listening to Katie's rantings felt like maybe he understood it now a bit more. "I let my mum talk me into showing off the car."

"Now that you have it, she'll expect you visiting more."

"Expect it, won't get it."

"Yeah...so?" Robert stared at him again. "What do you want Aaron?"

Aaron frowned and then knocked on the door. "A wreath? Really Sugden? Are we in getting a layout on Garden and Gnome."

"There isn't a magazine called Garden and Gnome."

"You'd know mate, not me..." Aaron looked at the boxers again. "Maybe they can do a little photo shoot of you and your matching boxers and wreathe."

Robert grabbed Aaron's arm and yanked him into the flat, closed the door, and shoved Aaron against it. "Dingle, you better have woken me up to do more than laugh at my Christmas spirit."

"Christmas spirit?" Aaron was off again. 

Robert rolled his eyes. 

"Maybe..." Aaron said letting his eyes drag down Robert's chest again and his stomach and the light dusting of darker blonde hair. He dragged his eyes up and saw Robert's hair all flat and unstyled and licked his lips. "My mum did me in with all the nagging and wanting me to go home..."

"Stressed out are ya?"

"Yeah, real stressed out," Aaron said with a nod. 

"Better do something about that, then," Robert said, and he pushed into Aaron's space and pulled at his hoodie. Soon between the two of them, Aaron was just in his boxers as well. 

"Sorry, my pants are boring. I didn't get the memo we were going for corny," Aaron laughed.

"Will you shut up," Robert muttered, but he was smiling, and then they were kissing. 

~~~

Robert pressed a light kiss against the back of Aaron's neck. His nose was smushed up against it, and the sunlight was high enough now his bedroom was yellow from the light. Aaron sighed and pressed his body back into Robert's hold, and he sighed in relief as he tightened his arms and tangled their legs even more than they were already. It was all he'd wanted to do since he woke up from the slight doze, but he wanted to be sure Aaron was awake before he did it -- he'd listened to his breathing and risked the kiss when he felt it shift. Aaron's hand found his by his hip and took it in his and Robert let out a sigh. 

"What time is it?"

"Don't know, don't care," Robert muttered. 

"I'm tired..." Aaron mumbled his voice slurred. 

"Sleep then..." Robert kissed his neck again. "I'm not planning to move."

"I like it, you know..." Aaron mumbled. 

"What?"

"Your wreath...."

"The one you were laughing at?"

Aaron giggled again, and Robert bit his lip and tightened his hold on him. It was an amazing sound, and he'd already known he loved Aaron's laugh, but the giggle was more amazing than anything. Aaron seemed like and free, and Robert was sure it was only because he was sleep-deprived it was happening, but he wondered if there was ever anyway he could elicit it on purpose.

"It's you though, innit?" Aaron slurred. 

"Me?"

"Yeah...something, Robert."

Robert grinned into Aaron's neck. "Eloquent."

"Shut up, it's nice, a bit fancy, but it's nice."

"It's just a wreathe..." Robert mumbled, not that it really was just a wreathe to him. 

Aaron giggled again and turned around in Robert' arms. Robert felt a bit disgruntled to not have Aaron's solid presence against him, and he'd quite liked where his mouth had been. But then he was staring into blue-blue eyes and looking at Aaron's face and seeing a wide smile that was still new to him. "Did you make it?"

"What?"

"You know artsy-crafty shite, you're the type you know?"

"Am I?"

Aaron nodded with a giggle.

"Beginning to think it was a miracle you didn't drive off the road."

"Shut up...did ya?"

Robert shook his head and averted his eyes, he couldn't look at him and answer the question. "My mum did... a long time ago."

"Oh..." Aaron breathed, and Robert felt fingers in his hair. "She liked Christmas?"

Robert looked at him again, and he was still smiling, but Aarons' expression was softer. "Yeah," he nodded.

"Nice," Aaron slurred, and he blinked a few times, then moved forward and pushed his face against Robert's neck and fell right to sleep. Robert held his breath for a few minutes and ran a hand through Aaron's soft curls, they were a mess on his head and down his back, softly and carefully, oddly unworried he'd wake him up or startle him. 

After a few more minutes he fell back asleep himself.


	23. Not The End Really

Aaron bit his lip and tried to stifle his moan, but it impossible to quiet it, and it felt loud in Robert's bedroom. Like it bounced off the walls like he was being pushed into the bed as Robert slammed into him. Hard and sure and too good to be real and Aaron had to tighten his legs around Robert's waist and try to hold on tighter to his arms, fingers digging into biceps. He felt like he might fall away from him despite being so firmly held, so positively slammed into the mattress. He wondered idly if they could break the bed.  

"We're not testing that out," Robert laughed as he slammed again, but he slowed down, and Aaron whined -- again too loudly. 

Robert shifted his hips but stalled out and pressed a kiss to Aaron's temple, making Aaron aware how sweaty he was and he thought about the shower -- and how last night he'd had Robert's chest pressed against the wall and his mouth against his hole. Suddenly, he was in both places, but Robert's new pace was teasing, and he hated it as much as he loved it. 

"Move," he muttered, but he was kissing Robert's mouth and at the slide of the tongues forgot what it was he was demanding and started demanding more of his mouth. 

"Hmm..." Robert hummed in that way he had that just added to everything because it sounded like he thought Aaron was delicious and who sounded that way about a person. "I will..." He groaned. "I just didn't want this to end to fast, I..." He rolled his hips again, agonizingly slow. "I wanna be in you as long as I can..."

"Shit..." Aaron groaned and felt his cheeks heat, then they went even hotter as their eyes locked. Robert's ocean eyes intense and focused, on him and with this dazed glaze that Aaron was pretty sure shining in his own. "Robert..." He breathed out his name.

"You make my name sound different..." Robert muttered, and he was fucking Aaron again like he wanted, hard, fast and fucking perfect. It was always fucking perfect, and things started to spark white, and Aaron felt like he might fall away from Robert again and started clutching at him again and realized he didn't want it to end yet...

"Slow down," he started to mutter it. 

Robert huffed and whimpered, but the pace slowed down again, and he stared down at Aaron, strange lopsided smile on his face and shaking his head. "Make up your mind, Aaron."

Aaron laughed and shook his head. 

"Cheek..." Robert whispered, and they were kissing and rocking together in a perfect slow rhythm.  

Aaron wondered if they could stay like this forever, but music started playing and not just any music but Christmas music, and he felt himself groan in an entirely different way.  

"Fuck...fucking alarm," Robert muttered and fell to a stop as he tried to stop the music.  

"Christmas music?" Aaron rolled his eyes. 

"It's nearly a week before Christmas, what do you expect?" Robert muttered and kissed his neck as his weight shifted over Aaron again.  

Aaron forgot what he was complaining about and pulled Robert into him, eyes closing at the weight of him and finding himself blushing again because of the want of it, the need of it -- Robert over him. 

"Better quicken this up again..." Robert breathed into his ear, and then he started up again, and Aaron was afraid of slipping away until all he could see was white -- and idly decided Robert was ruining sex for him -- no one else would ever be _this_ good. 

~~~

"Your mum called," Adam said as he walked into the flat, his mouth full of toast.

"Why did she call you?" Aaron asked. 

Adam lifted Aaron's cell phone up in his hand. "I answered it on the third try in case it was an emergency or something."

"It was just Mum being Mum wasn't it?"

"I told her you forgot your phone and were out," Adam rolled his eyes in the direction of Robert's. 

"Out?" Aaron asked. 

Adam was still staring in the direction of Robert's, but slowly he looked back toward his toast and shrugged. "I just said out, not gonna give her details, neither of us wants that..." Adam made a face. "But mate, she was not impressed."

"Meaning?"

"You know, the usual..." Adam fell into his Chas impression. "My baby needs a nice bloke."

Aaron rolled his eyes.  

Adam laughed. "She'd have a fit, you know."

"A fit?" Aaron muttered as he grabbed his phone and looked at the four missed calls from his Mum, noting there were texts too. He groaned and remembered why he'd moved away.  

"Sugden."

Aaron glared at Adam.

"What? What? I'm not saying anything about how you've seemed to have forgotten you have a bed here, am I? Noooo...maate. Just pointing out your Mum hates him."  

Aaron shrugged. "So, not like we're dating."

Adam opened his mouth but shut it. "So... Tonight is pull night, right?" 

Aaron decided to ignore the pointed tone. "Yes..." He gritted out, but his mind started to try to find an excuse to get out of it. 

~~~

He was unpacking groceries when his cell went off, and he nearly dropped the package of crisps as his hand flew to pull it out of his jean's pocket. He frowned though realizing it was call and not Aaron at the same time.  

"Hi, Vic." 

"Sound excited to hear from me."

"I'm busy."

"With what, work?"

"No..."

"What housework?"

"Not exactly..." He said, looking at his shopping. "What do you want, Vic?"

"You mean other than remind you, you have no life."

"I have a life."

"Sure... I want you to come home for Christmas."

"No," he snapped. 

"Robbbbb," she whined, and he could just see her big wide eyes trying to lure him in, via the phone but he managed to keep his groan silent. He couldn't let her know it got to him.  

"No."

"Two years, Rob."

"What?"

"Two years ago you promised me next year. Then last year you swore this year. So...guess what, you have no choice, you are coming home for Christmas. You are staying here, we are hanging out -- ALL OF US."

"Vic..."

"I'm getting really serious with Ellis, Rob."

"Uh, okay, what does that have to do with..."

"And this is our first Christmas. And I really want all my family and him, and his family -- I want this Rob, please? My families."

"You're really serious about him?"

"Yes, and you better watch your tongue."

"About what... He's... Almost good enough for ya," he said and sighed. No one was good for her, but Ellis was better than most the other bozos she used to date. He sighed and tried to come up with a reason he couldn't this year -- but his mind was blanking. "This means a lot to ya?"

"A LOT," she said. 

"Fine."

"YESSSS."

"But you have to promise to not leave me alone with Andy or Katie."  

"I promise."

"And you and Diane need to not stick your noses in too hard on my business."

"We just care about you being happy, Rob... You deserve someone, be it woman or man -- no I haven't told anyone."

He shook his head. "You know people don't need relationships to be happy, right?"

"You need more than just work, Rob."

"Money makes me happy," he said. 

"Robert, I know you, you want more than that," she said. 

"No, I don't..." He said, but he didn't buy it and found himself looking in the direction of Aaron's flat. He clenched his jaw. 

"I just...you've told me now, and I was hoping that meant you were maybe looking past just working."

"I got outted in front of ya, Vic."

"But you took your time to say something, you wouldn't have made it clear to me later if you didn't want too. If it didn't matter and if it didn't make a difference."

He felt tight in his own skin. "Yeah, Vic, I can't talk about it, all right."

"Alright, won't push... Promise you won't try to get out of it, Rob."

"Out of what?"

"Christmas, you've already forgotten?"

"No," he lied and sighed. "I promise, okay?"

"Good... We'll make a whole week of it."

"A WEEK?"

"Yeah, the day before Christmas Eve to a week later."

"You're killing me, Vic."

"I don't care. It's standard, the whole Village is going to be decked out for the week, you know. Like when we were kids."

"Right..." He frowned and wondered if his family would ever understand he had a different childhood than the rest of them. At least after one point in his life... "Fine. I'll come down the day before Christmas Eve and stay forever."

"Don't get my hopes up."

"Don't you dare twist my sarcasm."

Vic laughed. 

"I'm hanging up now."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Merry Christmas," Vic giggled before she hung up. 

He sighed. 

~~~

Aaron leaned back in his seat as Adam walked up to the bar and looked around the room. He just wasn't seeing anyone that caught his eye, and it was the truth, but Adam kept giving him looks and rolling his eyes as he turned down anyone who walked over.  As he thought it another man was standing in front of him and he was fit, Aaron would give him that, but he was the wrong shade of blonde.

Aaron sighed. He needed to stop. Maybe he needed to put some space between him and Robert again.  

"Can I?" the wrong shade of blonde ask looking at Adam's seat. 

Aaron knew Adam would love it if he gave away his seat. "Sorry but my mate..."

"He is just a mate, though?"

"Yeah," Aaron said, making a face at the idea of him and Adam.  

"Give me a minute to win you over," the guy pushed.

Aaron shook his head. 

"You have a boyfriend?" the guy asked. 

"No," Aaron said in a tired tone.

"Then what's the issue? You into your straight mate, cause that's a disaster."

"I'm just..." Aaron sighed and looked around. "Just need to be somewhere else," he said and got up. He knew Adam would give him another speech about Robert, he knew it, but he didn't care -- at the moment. He'd start putting some distance between him and Robert, he would, but he'd do it...

Tomorrow.

Tonight... He pulled out his phone as he headed toward the exit of the bar.  

Aaron: _I'm coming over._

The reply was nearly instantaneous. 

Robert: _I'll be ready._

Aaron groaned because he knew exactly what that meant. 

~~~

"What the fuck are you doing," Robert whined, blushing as Aaron's forehead hit his own and the cock that'd been filling him up perfect and fast, but it shifted to perfect and far too slow. 

"Taste of your own medicine," Aaron chuckled all gravel into Robert's ear.

"Fuck...Aaron...I..." Robert slid a hand down Aaron's spine, nails scraping his skin and whimpered. "I need..."

"I know," Aaron promised and pressed his mouth against Robert's. 

Robert slid his tongue between his lips, tried to take over dominance of the kiss, hoping it might speed up Aaron's hips, but it didn't work. Aaron pulled away and slowly pushed inside of him and stopped there. But he bit his own lip and stared down at Aaron.  

"Aaron," he whined again. 

"Robert...." Aaron breathed and pressed a chaste kiss to his mouth.

He sighed, and his hand found Aaron's cheek, and he stared up at him, eyes locked, and Aaron was starting up again, but slow, steady, but sure and perfect. Robert sighed, and half wondered why the hell he didn't bottom all the time. He closed his eyes, something about the look in Aaron's eyes feeling too much. But they flew open seconds later because he bloody missed that look in Aaron's eyes. 

"Aaron..."

"I've got you."

"I know," Robert whispered.

"Yeah," Aaron smiled. 

And then the pace got faster. 

~~~

Hours later they woke up to Taylor Swift. 

[ Inevitable](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17152337/chapters/40332704)

  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry. There will be more in this universe. I promise.


End file.
